Executive Committee Meeting, October 22, 2016

Dear comrades, considering the current debate on CETA the Party Executive Committee (PEC) stressed its solidarity with the Wallonian government. For months, its reservations have been ignored by the European level but now the region is put under pressure. We say: CETA needs to be stopped - at the latest during the parlamentarian ratification process of the EU member states.

In light of current events, the PEC passed a resolution against the deportation agreement between the EU and Afghanistan. The agreement negotiated at the beginning of October is supposed to legitimise the deportation of thousands of people in need of protection to a war-ridden country, to a land where the safety of the civilians can not be guaranteed and the terror of the Taliban and warlords prevails. We oppose this policy following the Turkey EU-example. The federal government instead should fight for the EU to present a comprehensive action plan for the effective abolishment of the reasons of flight. At the same time we eventually have to provide the necessary funds for the social infrastructure in Germany and the integration of refugees.

The PEC reinforced its opposal of a surveillance of DIE LINKE and its working bodies by the intelligence services. In a further resolution the PEC declares its solidarity with the pupils and students on strike in Spain, opposing the attacks of the government against the public education system.

There was an intense and quite controversial debate on the report of the meeting of several members of parliament and representatives of Land organisations of the parties DIE LINKE, Social Democratic Party, and the Greens (r2g). The initiators announced that further meetings of this kind were planned and assured the PEC to report on them regularly.

Further topics were, among others, our criticism of the compromise of the Great Coalition on the heritage tax and the current phase of our campaign "That’s essential!" with the actual priority of "100.000 more care workers!". From November 14th the focus will be "Low rents instead of high returns!".

Budget 2017

The PEC debated in a first reading the financial plan for the upcoming year and acknowledged the utilization of the financial plan for the third quarter of 2016. Resolution on the financial plan follows as soon as the presiding officer for the German parliament has settled the public funds for parties for the year 2017.

Debate on Income Tax Concept

The PEC debated the proposals of the working group redistribution and tax justice on the income tax concept of DIE LINKE. Decisions regarding the content are to be decided in the next meeting in December for the first draft of the election programme.

Motions Committed by the Party Congress

The PEC agreed on the motion G.7 "Social justice does not end at prison walls", introduced by a comrade from Hamburg. Also, the PEC adopted motion P.9 "Offensive member recruitment" and acknowledged in this context a statement of the coordination group membership development.The membership figures of the party developed encouragingly in the third quarter. Since nine quarters we can register a slight suprlus again. On 30th  September 2016 we had 58.645 members.

Political Start of the Year on 13th and 14th January 2017

DIE LINKE will start the year of federal elections with a political prelude on 13th and 14th January. Thus, we want to send a strong signal that we, as DIE LINKE, will start the election year motivated and full of energy.

Federal Elections 2017

The party chairs gave the official starting signal for the election programme debate during today’s press conference. A first draft should be presented to the public in January 2017; the final decision on the election programme will be made by the delegates of the party congress from 9th to 11th June 2017.

The PEC confirmed me as Federal Election Campaigner and thus followed my appointment by the old PEC of last April. I am grateful for the trust. I am looking forward to this election campaign. Together we can be successful!

Furthermore the PEC agreed on the announcement of the Clara Zetkin womens’ award and the local initiative award for the coming year.

In solidarity

Matthias Höhn