Election posters for the 2025 federal election Scholz and Merz -- conceptphoto.info, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, via Wikimedia Commons
This was not an election to change the direction of the country. It was already clear with the break-up of the “traffic light” coalition (Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberal Democrats) that the cornerstones of the current war and crisis policy would remain in place beyond this election. During the election campaign, the major parties in the Bundestag outdid each other in their demands for a continuation of the war in Ukraine, militarisation, and social cuts. The Conservatives (CDU), Social Democrats (SPD), Greens, and far-right AfD all want to spend up to half of the federal budget on militarisation - together they received 81.7 per cent of the vote.
“The traffic light government has failed, its policy of militarisation, social cuts, and the dismantling of democratic rights will be continued and will probably even be intensified,” said Patrik Köbele, Chairman of the DKP, summarising the election results.
The next government will try to solve the problem that broke the traffic light government: the financing of the war drive. Hundreds of billions of euros are to be made available to pay for new weapons, military operations, and the continuation of economic warfare. The costs of this will have to be borne by the vast majority of the population, through cuts in social services, education, health, culture, and the further disintegration of public infrastructure.
These issues hardly played a role in the election campaign. Die Linke (the Left Party) focussed on social issues. Its electoral success shows that many people are feeling the effects of the war policy. However, Die Linke's campaign concealed the connection between militarisation and social cuts. Party leader Jan van Aken in particular used the election campaign and his media presence to dismantle his party's past commitment to peace – which was already under severe attack – by adopting NATO’s narrative of Russian imperialism, by calling for tougher sanctions, and – as recently in an interview – by warning of the imposition of a “dictatorial peace” in Ukraine. It is to be feared that Die Linke’s postive election results will be interpreted as confirmation of this course and that the remaining critics within the party – the NATO opponents and anti-militarists – will be pushed out. In this case, Die Linke will take on the classic role of social democracy: to help integrate the working class into the war drive.
The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) began with a clearer position against war. This stance will now be missing in the parliament. The failure to reenter the Bundestag is the result of a long chain of tactical and political mistakes. By participating in the state-level governments in Brandenburg and Thuringia, the party gambled away its credibility as an oppositional force. By emphasising migration policy during its campaign, the BSW played into and strengthened the mechanism of distracting the public and dividing the working class along racist lines. This mechanism served to suppress the debate around peace and prevent the linking of the social problems with the policies of the war drive.
The upcoming government under Friedrich Merz (CDU), which can fall back on the AfD as a reactionary spokesman, does not need to fear much parliamentary resistance. This makes it all the more important to work on broad alliances for a strong peace and trade union movement on the streets and in the workplace. It is crucial that even those on the “left” who are fighting for peace or who are amongst the supporters of the BSW are not discouraged. “The fight for peace and against social austerity will not be decided in the Bundestag,” Patrik Köbele reminds us. “We will see you at the Easter marches, on the 1st of May, and in the union’s upcoming collective bargaining rounds. Now more than ever!”
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