Just before the Left Party’s federal party conference, which begins on Friday, 23 out of the 64 members of the Linke parliamentary group have called for the debate over a salary cap for elected officials to be dropped.
These members sent a detailed letter to party leaders Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken, which the media outlet “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” has reported on. The letter began by stating, “We are writing to you today because this cannot continue.” The deputies complained that they had not been consulted during the process. They questioned the party leadership, asking, “What would be so bad about allowing us, the affected parties, to participate, just as we demand in every conventional collective bargaining negotiation as a party?”
The 23 members asked the party leadership to cancel the debate during the federal conference and to facilitate a proper, fair process. They further argued, “We want a dialogue at eye level, because we are not the problem; the capitalist conditions under which people suffer and against which we all fight are the problem.”
Currently, Schwerdtner and van Aken limit their salaries to an average wage of 2,850 euros since the beginning of the legislative term. Other deputies have adopted the same measure. Various motions concerning different salary amounts are scheduled for a vote at the party conference.
The designated successor to van Aken, Luigi Pantisano, defended the discussion. He told the RND that the debate over the salary cap is more established than the Left Party itself. He noted that Italian communists had included it, and many elected officials had voluntarily implemented it. Pantisano himself caps his salary, explaining that the funds from the deputies should flow into a social fund that all local and district chapters can access to provide concrete assistance during their social consultations.
Meanwhile, former party chief Janine Wissler criticized the procedure. In a blog entry, she argued that it is problematic when such large sums of money are freely allocated by deputies and their staff to individuals. She stated that how these funds are used cannot be transparent and risks opening “doors of dependency and arbitrariness.” Wissler urged that any cap should be aligned with collective bargaining agreements, not with the average salary, and that all deputies should be required to maintain transparency regarding side jobs and donations.
