Skip to main content
Regional secretary with the National Education Union
The meltdown of Die Linke 
Bundestag member SEVIM DAGDELEN describes how the Left party’s pro-war stance has created an urgent need for a political force that fights for social justice and peace and pushes back against the catastrophic societal course set by the elites
(From left), Lukas Schoen, Amira Mohamed Ali, Sahra Wagenknecht, Ralph Suikat and Christian Leye arrive for a news conference to announce the founding of a precursor to a new party in Berlin, Germany, Monday October 23 2023

AT THE press conference announcing the new party project, Sahra Wagenknecht commented on the war in the Middle East. She condemned the terror attacks perpetrated by Hamas. 

At the same time she described the Gaza Strip as an “open-air prison” and spoke of an “unbearable situation” while calling for a political solution with Palestinians having their own state within a two-state solution. 

The chairman of the Die Linke (the Left party) parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, Dietmar Bartsch, criticised this immediately, saying: “I distance myself in the strongest possible terms from the term ‘open-air prison’ used to describe the Gaza Strip at the Wagenknecht press conference.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Netherlands' Prime Minister Dick Schoof, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, US President Donald Trump, Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pose during the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, June 25, 2025
Features / 26 June 2025
26 June 2025

What began as a regional alliance now courts Australia, Japan and South Korea while preparing three-front warfare — but this overreach accelerates Nato’s own crisis as member states surrender sovereignty to the US, argues SEVIM DAGDELEN
 

The US lead ship
Features / 18 June 2025
18 June 2025

SEVIM DAGDELEN argues that Israel’s attack on Iran represents the second front in Washington’s global three-front war strategy, with Germany leading the Ukraine proxy war against Russia so that the US can target China

AGAINST WAR: Demonstrators in Berlin demand Germany stop sup
Features / 2 November 2024
2 November 2024
In a call for a renewed peace movement, SEVIM DAGDELEN warns that US nuclear weapons deployments in Britain and Germany mark a dangerous return to cold war brinkmanship, carried out without democratic consent
PUTTING A GOOD FACE TO A BAD GAME: (Right) Tania von Uslar-G
Features / 17 April 2024
17 April 2024
SEVIM DAGDELEN writes that the response of Germany to Nicaragua’s charges of aiding and abetting genocide in Gaza has been to downplay its role in supplying arms and question the premise that genocide is already taking place
Similar stories
Heidi Reichinnek
Berlin Bulletin / 23 May 2025
23 May 2025

In part two of May’s Berlin Bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN, having assessed the policies of the new government, looks at how the opposition is faring

HARD-HITTING: Sevim Dagdelen
Interview / 8 February 2025
8 February 2025
Ben Chacko talks to Bundestag member for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, SEVIM DAGDELEN, about the continuing war in Ukraine, the economic crisis, controversies over immigration, the failings of Germany’s liberalised prostitution policy, and the importance of free speech
AGAINST WAR: Demonstrators in Berlin demand Germany stop sup
Features / 2 November 2024
2 November 2024
In a call for a renewed peace movement, SEVIM DAGDELEN warns that US nuclear weapons deployments in Britain and Germany mark a dangerous return to cold war brinkmanship, carried out without democratic consent
The charismatic leader of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BS
Features / 26 September 2024
26 September 2024
The new party is growing and winning not only due to its refusal to beat the war drums over Ukraine, but because of its fearless scepticism of liberal orthodoxy from cancel culture to immigration, writes NICK WRIGHT