NATO, the armed forces and the left: daydreams about world peace

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The leadership of the Left Party aspires to join the federal government.

How difficult this would be in reality became abundantly clear at the weekend: Greens leader Robert Habeck made the party's commitment to the transatlantic NATO alliance a condition for a coalition with the party and immediately met resistance.

“I am pleased that Robert Habeck is signaling openness to a center-left alliance. The conditions he formulated for it are strange, ”said Linke boss Janine Wissler to the newspapers of the Funke media group. According to her, a commitment to NATO would mean adopting the two percent target, “many billions that should be better spent on social justice, education and climate protection than on tanks and bombs”. The left leader recalled that the Greens had been founded as a peace party. But NATO is a "war alliance".

Wissler exemplarily showed that an old ideological bloc thinking still determines the program of foreign and security policy in her party.

In simple terms it can be summarized as follows: USA are imperialist, Russia feels threatened by it;

War (and thus also military) is bad, peace (i.e. no military) is good.

This thinking also results in the blanket rejection of NATO.

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A growing number of comrades, however, want to prevent government participation in the federal government from failing on this complex of issues.

From a leftist perspective, too much could be achieved with a green-red-red alliance.

The central question: How many concessions are you willing to make?

The left, currently concerned about harmony, is still keeping a low profile.

But in the election campaign, which is picking up speed, it is slowly becoming apparent how the left-wing daydreams about world peace could crumble in reality.

Even a "discussion offer" caused an uproar

"In the last 20 years we have not prevented a single foreign assignment by shouting the same fundamental criticism onto the field from the sidelines," said Matthias Höhn, member of the Left Bundestag, WELT. “We have to get up on the field and do something to ensure that certain missions are ended or not even started because we have a say in the decisions. That would be a greater success. ”But this requires votes. "Many young voters do not appreciate an uncritical relationship to human rights violations in Russia and China, but expect a clear stance on it, no matter which country it is about," criticizes Höhn.

In January he caused a stir when he published an "offer for discussion" to his party.

In the paper he called for a move away from the No to foreign missions and to NATO.

A month later, Höhn lost the runoff election for vice-chairman at the federal party conference - against Tobias Pflüger, who stands for the traditionalist foreign policy of the left.

Matthias Höhn calls for a debate on a new foreign and security policy in the party

Source: Marlene Gawrisch / WORLD / MARLENE GAWRISCH

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Pflüger, defense policy spokesman in the Bundestag, emphasizes that it is important that the left remains consistent. “It's like in other areas of politics: You can't give up what you think is right programmatically in favor of possible alliances.” For the left, however, foreign policy is not an area like any other, but part of their DNA. Questioning them is taboo.

This is one of the reasons why the party has not yet found a uniform orientation. The fear of a quarrel that could drive the party apart is too great. Outwardly, the chairwoman Susanne Hennig-Wellsow in particular makes it clear that there is room for negotiation in matters of foreign policy. What that means remains deliberately vague. The party describes the main efforts in the draft of the election program: dissolution of NATO, termination of all foreign deployments of the Bundeswehr, stop of arms exports, less money for the armed forces. Instead of NATO, the left wants “a collective security system with the participation of Russia”, or at least Germany's exit from the military structures.

It is questionable whether coalition talks would actually fail on this point alone.

Because even those on the left know that such a security system cannot currently be achieved.

It is conceivable that the left would be satisfied with the declaration of intent to improve relations with Russia.

Another possible agreement is indicated in the formulation of the program: "In every political constellation, the left will advocate that Germany withdraw from the military structures of the military alliance." You can read it like this: The party will not block itself out of a constellation - as long as she is allowed to say that she has campaigned for the exit.

In view of Habeck's demand, however, this would require a concession from the Greens.

With these issues, Wissler and Hennig-Wellsow are campaigning

The Left has elected Susanne Hennig-Wellsow and Janine Wissler to head the party and will join them in the federal election campaign.

See the first joint press conference of the party leaders here.

Source: WORLD

The left remains similarly vague on the subject of the Bundeswehr.

Since 2011, it has differentiated between “foreign” and “combat operations” in its basic program.

While more flexible spirits indicate that the Bundeswehr is not fighting in any of the current missions abroad, dogmatists already consider the provision of infrastructure for participation in the fight.

It will be difficult for the top candidates in the election campaign to find their way out of this dilemma.