The electoral success in the federal election, continuous poll numbers around 10 percent and a continued increase in membership: the current Left leadership is looking forward to its term in office, which will end in the summer, with some satisfaction. After the two chairmen Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken, Federal Managing Director Janis Ehling has now announced that he will run again at the upcoming party conference in Potsdam in June.
In view of important upcoming elections, the party needs to reach “many more people than before,” Ehling told the taz. This requires a well-coordinated and strong team. “That is also the reason why I will be running again as Federal Managing Director to tackle the next projects together with Ines and Jan,” said the 41-year-old Rostock native.
“Our work against heating cost rip-offs by landlords, the voluntary cap on our own salaries and the strong increase in membership have given the party momentum – internally and externally,” said Ehling. “We want to build on that.” Schwerdtner and van Aken already had At the end of January I announced that I would run again.
Like the two chairmen, Ehling also became elected to the party leadership in October 2024. Back then, things still looked bleak for the left: in the polls around 3 percent, hardly anyone gave a damn about them anymore. Only the very hard-core people believed in a return to the Bundestag. Looking back, the party conference in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, appears to have been a turning point. Since then, the party has recorded more than 76,600 new members and now has more than 123,000 members. She made a sensational comeback in the federal election with 8.8 percent.
Ehling has played his part in the upswing – unlike Schwerdtner and van Aken or parliamentary group leader Heidi Reichinnek, but mainly behind the scenes. His place is the machine room in the Karl Liebknecht House, the Berlin party headquarters. From there he is currently organizing work on a new basic program as chairman of the program commission. It is intended to replace the outdated Erfurt program from 2011.
“After almost 15 years, our positions need to be put to the test,” says Ehling. “Times have changed and we have to respond to them.” With the many new members, the party would be faced with an exciting substantive process. The development of the new program should be completed by the end of 2027 and result in a member decision.
First of all, however, the Left hopes to get into the party for the first time in March State parliaments of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. In the Berlin elections in September, the party even has a chance of becoming the strongest party. With a view to poll numbers for the AfD, Ehling is less confident about the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt, which will also take place in September. “As a child of the baseball bat years, I am very concerned about the rise of the right,” he said. “I know exactly what’s at stake.”