There was a time for the left, it seemed as if the coup against Sahra Wagenknecht was imminent. That's just a few weeks ago. Protecting their anonymity, MPs then counted how many votes they would need to drop the faction leader. Internally there was an effort to drive a wedge between Wagenknecht and their supporters.
In a group meeting in November, the rebels succeeded a first success. With an application for the UN-Migration Pact they introduced Wagenknecht: This rejects the agreement. While the group voted for it, the chairman had to abstain.
Emotional climax in this phase was a few weeks before the appearance in the faction of Thomas Nord, once PDS chief in Brandenburg and for many years Federal Treasurer of the Left. Because Wagenknecht had distanced himself from the call for the big "indivisible" demonstration in Berlin, Nord threatened to quit the group. He wanted to make a decision until the mid-January convention.
With his personal ultimatum, North had set a deadline for all frustrated leftists. Wagenknecht has long been polarizing among the comrades: because of their solo efforts in refugee policy, because of the commitment to their movement "getting up" because of the ongoing power struggles with the party leadership.
Amazingly quiet
The dispute over "indivisible" was exemplary for many things. Wagenknecht had complained that the demo was about the demand for "open borders" under the motto "for solidarity instead of exclusion". Her critics saw this as proof of the accusation that the top comrade fish on the right edge.
Now the deadline for the uprising has expired.
Thursday and Friday the group will meet for their retreat in a Berlin hotel. It should go to social policy, to the upcoming European and state elections - but first of all to the faction itself. Only: Finally, it has become surprisingly quiet around the camp of Wagenknecht opponents.
Already at a joint meeting of party executive and faction at the end of November, some predictions of escalation had failed to materialize. The fear of the split was felt, a participant reported at that time. Wagenknecht's quartet of quartet members, their co-chair Dietmar Bartsch and party leaders Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger even put forward a joint paper on migration policy.
"It depends on how Sahra behaves," one MP said after the meeting. In fact, Wagenknecht stayed behind rather, waiving further provocative interviews. Only her appearance in yellow warning vest in front of the Chancellor's office and the derailment of a "get up" member who fabulated via Twitter on "government broadcasting", caused at the left last excitement.
Two attacks
Wagenknecht's opponents have now made two attacks on the head of the parliamentary group for the parliamentary fact-finding exercise: they want to formulate rules for the uplifting membership of comrades in a position paper. And they submit an application: The group should again commit to the "indivisible" alliance. Both documents are available to SPIEGEL.
The trick is: The authors basically formulate a matter of course for leftists. If Wagenknecht contradicts, it publicly stands again as a cross driver. If she carries the papers with her, her opponents say she has changed her course. An advantage for the discussion in the exam.
In the text to "get up" it says, for example, members of the movement would have to distinguish themselves from right-wing extremists and "competition candidates" in elections should be "definitely excluded." Wagenknecht has already done both. A clear distancing from "getting up" is not found in the paper.
The proposal for "indivisible" states that the demands of the demonstration "correspond to our individual and programmatic self-understanding" and are "an inseparable part of our political identity". It was therefore in the interest of all the left, "to support this initiative".
Sharp reproaches waive the authors here, too. Nevertheless, it is considered open, as Wagenknecht behaves in the event of a vote. But even if she does not support the "indivisible" statement, it seems she is not going to be really dangerous at the moment.
"Situation has changed"
"There will be no desist request," it says now from among the harshest Wagenknecht critics. "That would distract from the substantive-strategic debate." Thomas Nord, on the other hand, tells SPIEGEL that he has never led the debate anyway. His threatened faction exit? "The situation has changed so much that we had two open discussions in 2018, which I very much welcome."
Wagenknecht himself does not think at all that it has always made it clear. The faction leader has decisive advantages: She is by far the most popular comrade. In eastern Germany, she was in December according to an Emnid survey even the most popular politician. Without them, so the fear in party and faction, threatened the left future harsh losses. And in the upcoming elections in Europe, Bremen, Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony, the comrades can not use internal squabbles anyway.
In any case, in the faction the camp of the Wagenknecht opponents did not appear to have increased. The "Indivisible" proposal is signed by 24 comrades - about as many as had already positioned themselves in a letter in March against the chairman. 35 deputies would be necessary for a majority against Wagenknecht.
In the fall anyway regular board elections would be called, it is now from the parliamentary group. Then, when most of the elections are over, Wagenknecht could be close. At the moment, says one who is close to her, "Sahra is super relaxed".