"The left lives!" shouted Left Party co-leader Jan van Aken to the cheering crowd at the election party in Berlin as the projected election results rolled in. The party won 8.8% of the national vote share — a massive jump from the 3% it was polling at in December. 

Last year was a political nightmare for the Left Party: In January 2024, their former parliamentary group leader, Sahra Wagenknecht, founded her own eponymous party, and then they saw their European Union representation cut in half to just 2.7% in June.

The 2024 regional elections were also a disaster, with the party losing its traditional foothold in eastern Germany. Their only state premier failed to hang on in Thuringia, while the party barely made it into Saxony's state parliament and was kicked out of Brandenburg entirely. 

Little wonder that few believed that the Left Party, known as Die Linke in German, would have much success in the parliamentary election on February 23.

Left sees surge among young voters

"You all made this comeback possible," an emotional Heidi Reichinnek, the Left's leading candidate, told the party's grassroots supporters on election night. They had been campaigning hard on doorsteps throughout Germany in recent weeks and months. 

Reichinnek's reach on X and TikTok was widely reported on during the end spurt of the election campaign. After the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, lead by now chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz, voted for a severely tightened asylum policy together with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), 36-year-old Reichinnek's impassioned speeches in the Bundestag went viral.

This could be why the Left was able to win over large numbers of voters at the last minute, especially among younger people. The party came out top in the 18 to 24 age group with 25% of the vote, ahead of the far-right AfD with 21%. For comparison: in the 2021 federal election, the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) topped this age category with 23% and 21% respectively. 

Political scientist Antonios Souris is astounded by the change in sentiment. "I remember that in other elections in recent years, we often talked about young people shifting to the right," he told DW. That trend still exists, he said, but at the same time there is a shift to the left, which indicates a rejection of the political center.

Souris said that while the Left Party certainly ran a hugely more successful social media campaign than it did during the last election, their very strong door-to-door campaign should also not be overlooked. "Not just on the internet, but on the ground, on the street." 

Focus on tackling Germany's social, economic woes

Another advantage for the party was its outsider appeal as part of the opposition. "It was a bit of an underdog, while the Greens were in government," said Souris. He believes the Left Party likely better reflected the views of pro-immigration, refugee-friendly progressives in contrast to the increasingly hard-line anti-immigration rhetoric coming from the political center. "We can't prove that yet, but the result already looks like that," he added.

In addition, the Left's focus on sociopolitical issues that affect many people without much money in their pockets — rising rents, low wages, inflation — also helps explain its resurgence. In the wake of the government collapse last November, the party quickly presented an election program focused on social and economic policy, which was adopted at its party conference in January. They accused the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens of having done nothing to combat the mounting affordability crisis in recent years.

"People realize that the Left Party is credibly fighting for social issues, that no one else is doing it, that we are the only ones taking on the rich," party co-leader Ines Schwerdtner told DW.

To reduce poverty, the party has proposed abolishing the value-added tax on basic foodstuffs, hygiene products and public transport tickets. Currently, up to 19% VAT is charged on these items — almost a fifth of what consumers pay at the register. To finance these plans, it wants to increase state revenue with a graduated wealth tax: 1% for people in possession of €1 million, 5% from €50 million and 12% from €1 billion.

"Millions of hard-working people have created this extreme wealth," Jan van Aken told party conference-goers in January, adding there was enough money to go around, it is just being misallocated. "We have to get it back so that we can all live well again." 

To allow Germany to borrow more, the Left Party has proposed reforming the debt brake enshrined in Germany's constitution to allow for an additional €200 billion to be spent on the modernization of crumbling infrastructure. Financially ailing companies would also receive state support in exchange for long-term job guarantees and collective agreements, in addition to agreeing to keep their locations in Germany.

Clear stance against far right

The party saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as its main opponent in the Bundestag election.

"Not an inch for the fascists," van Aken said at the recent convention in Berlin. "We on the left always oppose attempts to divide our society and incitement against migrants."

A former United Nations biological weapons inspector, van Aken also addressed Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine as a violation of international law.

"We on the left are against all war and stand for peace," he said, but made a distinction between militarization and other potential routes to end the conflict. "We need more diplomacy in Ukraine, not more weapons. Without freedom and democracy in Ukraine, there will be no peace."

This article was originally published in German. It was first published on January 18, 2025 and later updated to reflect news developments and add analysis.

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