Left Party pushes itself as alternative to German status quo

By David Rising, Associated Press

BERLIN - Leaders of Germany’s new party - combining ex-communists and left-wing defectors from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats - pitched themselves on Saturday as an alternative to the status quo.

The Left Party has emerged as a serious force before Sept. 18 elections, sapping strength from Schroeder’s Social Democrats. The party’s attacks on Schroeder’s social welfare reform programs, its pledges to raise unemployment insurance and seek a minimum wage, coupled with a strong anti-war stance, has resonated with voters as Germany struggles with an 11.5 percent jobless rate and a stagnant economy.

The established parties, said Left Party campaign manager Bodo Ramelow, stand "for a super-large coalition of the socially cold-hearted."

Party leader Oskar Lafontaine, a former Social Democratic chairman and finance minister, told some 300 delegates at a party congress Saturday that the Left Party was the only true leftist alternative.

He said the Social Democrats "have to answer for seven years of neo-liberal politics, and cannot a few weeks before an election rebuild themselves as the new left party."

Lafontaine praised Schroeder’s refusal to take part in the war on Iraq, but then criticized the chancellor for allowing U.S. forces to operate from bases out of Germany.

"The bombing of cities and towns cannot create peace, you cannot fight terror with the bombing of cities and towns - the bombing of cities and towns leads to new violence, new hate and new terror," Lafontaine said.

The delegates adopted a campaign platform to eliminate compulsory military service and reduce the size of the armed forces.

Among their other issues, the Left Party agreed to push to establish a $1,725 monthly minimum wage, decreasing taxes on low-income earners while increasing taxes for those with higher-incomes, and increase bonus payments for families with babies.

An Infratest institute survey for Germany’s ARD television station Friday put support for the Left Party at 9 percent, finding that Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their sister Bavarian Christian Social Union still have a commanding lead, with 42 percent. The pro-business Free Democrats registered 7 percent.

Schroeder’s party gained 1 percentage point to reach 31 percent, while its government partner, the Greens, had at 8 percent.

The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

In other campaigning Saturday, Merkel met with business leaders in Aachen to talk about her proposal to raise Germany’s value added tax rate to 18 percent from 16 percent to finance a lowering of wage surcharges used to finance the country’s unemployment system.

Schroeder, in an interview with ZDF television, called the plan a "social injustice" that would hurt people like retirees and students without regular incomes.