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Parliamentary Left Parlamentarische Linke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Spokesperson | Dagmar Schmidt Wiebke Esdar Carmen Wegge |
| Treasurer | Hakan Demir |
| Founded | 1972; 53 years ago (1972) (Leverkusener Kreis) 1980; 45 years ago (1980) (Parliamentary Left) |
| Ideology | Social democracy[1] |
| Political position | Centre-left toleft-wing |
| National affiliation | Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Seats in theSPDBundestag group | 90 / 120 |
| Seats in theBundestag | 90 / 736 |
| Ministers | 2 / 17 |
| Parliamentary State Secretaries | 5 / 37 |
| Website | |
| parlamentarische-linke.de | |
TheParlamentarische Linke (English:Parliamentary Left, abbreviatedPL) is a platform within theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)'sBundestag group.[2] As of 2025, 90 of the group's 206 members belong to the Parliamentary Left,[3] making it the second largest of the three extant platforms in the SPD group, after theSeeheimer Kreis and before theBerlin Netzwerk. The Parliamentary Left representssocial democratic toleft-wing positions within the party.[1]
The Parliamentary Left describes itself as "an association of social democratic members of the Bundestag". It represents theleft wing of the Social Democratic Party, "advoca[ting] for freedom, equality and social progress".[1] Their principles are essentially based on the party program that existed until the 1990s. To this end, the platform supportsKeynesian approaches to economic and social policy. They were critical of the largelysupply-sideAgenda 2010 reforms ofGerhard Schröder's government, but officially called for their amendment rather than repeal.
In the area of tax policy, the PL call for a higherinheritance tax and the reintroduction of thewealth tax. They reject proposals for a strict limitation of thenational debt, and opposed the introduction of thedebt brake. They support efforts tocombat climate change, including internationally-agreed climate targets, strong investment inrenewable energy, and changes to subsidies and taxes for this purpose.[4] In light of the record debt taken on by the federal government during theCOVID-19 pandemic in Germany, the PL advocates a long-term move away from balanced budget principles, pushing for public investment in education, digitisation, and climate.[5]
The Parliamentary Left favours closer ties with theGreens andThe Left and the development ofred-red-green coalitions; the first such coalition in a western state wasformed in 2019 under the leadership ofCarsten Sieling, former speaker of the Parliamentary Left.[6]The Left became the leading member of a governing coalition for the first time in the eastern state of Thuringia after the2014 state election, alongside the SPD and Greens.
| Position | Member(s)[1] | |
|---|---|---|
| Speakers | Matthias Miersch,Sönke Rix andWiebke Esdar | |
| Treasurer | Elisabeth Kaiser | |
| Steering Committee | ||
The Parliamentary Left finds its origins in the "Group of the 16th Floor" (German:Gruppe der 16. Etage, founded by 21 mostly young SPD Bundestag members in October 1969. This group was associated with theExtra-Parliamentary Opposition and pushed for reform within the SPD parliamentary group. The modern platform was officially founded in 1972, then known as theLeverkusener Kreis (Leverkusener Circle). It was refounded as the Parliamentary Left in 1980.[7]
| Portrait | Name | Term start | Term end | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Michael Müller (born 1948) | 1998 | 2006 | |
 | Ernst Dieter Rossmann (born 1951) | 2006 | 2014 | |
 | Carsten Sieling (born 1959) | 2014 | 2015 | |
.jpg) | Matthias Miersch (born 1968) | 2015 | 2022 | |
| Matthias Miersch,Sönke Rix andWiebke Esdar | 2022 | |||
The following is a list of members of the Parliamentary Left as of January 2022.[8]
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