DIE LINKE Mourns For Nelson Mandela
On occasion of the decease of Nelson Rolihlala Mandela the chairs of DIE LINKE party and faction in Bundestag Katja Kipping, Bernd Riexinger, and Gregor Gysi declare:
With great concern we learned of Nelson Mandela’s demise. With Nelson Mandela we lose the greatest fighter against apartheid, a symbol for International Solidarity and a key figure during the transformation process to a democratic and multiethnic South Africa.
Mandela’s life seems inseparable connected with the African National Congress. Already as a young man Mandela engaged in the ANC against the racist rogue regime of South Africa and crucially shaped this fight. His resistance let him underground and he had to spend altogether 27 years of his life in prison, years that did not break him, but rather strengthened him.
After the end of apartheid and the first democratic elections Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. He faced the difficult challenges to democratise the country as well as to fight poverty and its consequences. Beside his decades-long fight against apartheid, to him belong the outstanding merits of consequently pursuing a policy of conciliation which made it possible to alleviate violent ethnic frictions and prevent revenge. For his merits about the peaceful ending of the apartheid system he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
He spent his last years secluded, with his family, which became more and more important to him and had to manage many years without him. Increasingly he suffered from limited health as a consequence of his detainment and was repeatedly forced to stay in hospital.
We mourn for this charismatic man who, with his progressive ideas, gave vital impulses for the building of society. With Nelson Mandela we lose a great statesman and friend of the people whose memory will always have a place in our party.