Leading Green politicians have urgently called on the Left Party to distance itself from antisemitism within its own membership. Bundestag Vice-President Omid Nouripour told Spiegel that any coalition that includes antisemites is unacceptable. He further insisted that Germany cannot govern via a government that relies on or was elected by antisemites, criminals, or those who support terrorism.
Nouripour noted that antisemitism poses a significant problem within the Left Party nationally. He stated that the federal Left Party cannot afford to remain silent if its members are associating with terrorists. Consequently, he demanded that the Left Party parliamentary group leader, Heidi Reichinek, explain the steps she plans to take to address and remove such individuals.
Adding to these demands, Sergey Lagodinsky, an MEP for the Green Party in Berlin, called for the complete exclusion of antisemitic members from the Left Party. Lagodinsky asserted that if the Berlin Left Party’s leadership is truly serious about fighting antisemitism, it must take structural measures to distance itself from those who harbor these views. Such actions could involve outright expulsion from both the party and its parliamentary faction. Furthermore, the European Green demanded that the Left Party publicly commit to the right of Israel to exist and must also confront antisemitism that manifests as anti-Zionism. In Lagodinsky’s view, anti-Zionism denies the legitimacy of a member of the international community and should not be promoted by any civilized political party in Germany.
