Parliamentary chairperson of Die Linke (the Left Party) Sahra Wagenknecht held a speech on the last day of the party’s convention in Leipzig on Sunday.
Wagenknecht condemned what she viewed as “hypocrisy” in German government’s behaviour towards Russia. She argued that “the hypocrisy in the interaction with Russia is unprecedented. At the beginning of this year, four diplomats were expelled because there was an attempted murder with poison in Great Britain, which as we know today, all big secret services in the world have at their disposal, including the BND [German Secret Service].”
The Die Linke chairperson went on to say that “when the US ambassador [to Germany] acts like a new colonial ruler and publicly announces that he wants to bring the right wing [parties] to power in Europe, then he is invited by Mr [German Foreign Minister] Maas for a coffee, instead of presenting him a return ticket to Washington [D.C.].”
Wagenknecht also called the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) a “product of Merkel” rather than a counter programme. She also called on her fellow party members to “end these absurd debates [within the party] and rather fight together so that Gauland’s AfD becomes a bird’s poop in German history,” in reference to AfD leader Alexander Gualand’s earlier comments that the Nazi era was a bird’s poop [brief stain] in German history.
The Die Linke party day took place in Leipzig from Friday to Sunday.