Executive Committee Meeting, May 14-15, 2017

Dear comrades, it was so close. At the end of a great campaign of the comrades from North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) a mere 8561 votes were missing to enter state parliament. On Monday, the Party Executive Committee thanked Özlem Alev Demirel and Christian Leye, who headed this campaign for us and did a great job.

Votes more than doubled: NRW is a good model for federal elections on 24th of September.

We have missed our goal to enter state parliament. Even though absolute votes for us doubled from 194,428 (2.6 percent) in 2012 to 414,496 votes (4.9 percent), we can only speak of an acceptable result. In some cities we achieved outstanding results; in Cologne and Bielefeld we even reached double-digit figures. However, as in Schleswig-Holstein, serious differences remain between city and countryside, between young and old. In all age groups up to 70 years we reached over five percent, but the results of the age group over 70 years altogether prevent us from entering state parliament. Considering the upcoming Bundestag elections it remains a challenge on the one hand to reinforce our strengths while on the other to counter the existing disparity so that we altogether succeed during elections.

Elections in NRW also demonstrate that the strategy of Minister President Hannelore Kraft and her Social Democrats to exclude DIE LINKE and rule out a possible coalition with us was sanctioned by the voters. For them it showed that a policy for social justice was excluded as well. In Schleswig-Holstein and NRW the Social Democrats declared us to be the main opponent - and lost dramatically. If Martin Schulz and the federal SPD conclude from the elections in spring to further flirt with the Liberals (FDP) they will soon be back to the party's approval rates under former chair Gabriel.

We will use the upwards trend from Schleswig Holstein and NRW as backing for the federal election campaign. For us as DIE LINKE fighting for a policy change in autumn remains clear. It is plainer then ever: Only with a strong DIE LINKE there will be pressure for a social country.

State of preparations for federal election campaign

The PEC was presented with the state of preparations for the federal election campaign and debated it. Until mid June the campaign will be ready and presented to the public on 21st July.

Before that the Party Congress in Hanover is pending. Once more, the PEC discussed the motions that have been submitted so far. During the next meeting we will debate the amendments for the draft leading motion.

The Historical Committee was newly convened; many thanks to the members for the work done and the engagement in the upcoming years.

We welcome Lissy Bott, Noro Schlorke, Lucas Kannenberg, and Jakob Migenda as new federal spokespersons for the left youth "solid". They reported from their federal congress, on membership development and plans for this year. Central will be the youth election campaign.

The PEC agreed on a declaration of solidarity with prisoners on hunger-strike in Palestine.

In solidarity,

Matthias Höhn