Germany's Left Party helped to pave the way for conservative leader Friedrich Merz to become chancellor this week. DW caught up with co-leader Ines Schwerdtner to discuss what they got in return, a new crackdown on asylum, and German-Israeli relations amid accusations of war crimes against Benjamin Netanyahu, which he denies.
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00:00I'm joined by Ina Schwertner. She's the co-leader of the Left Party and we're here at the party conference in Chemnitz where the mood is electric.
00:07And that's because the party won 9% in recent national elections. That may not sound like a lot but they defied expectations to do that.
00:15Ina Schwertner, the party message here is organised hope. What does that mean?
00:21It means that during the election campaign we said we are a sign of hope. Lots of young people came to us and joined us. We are over 112,000 members right now and now we have to organise this.
00:34We have to organise in the interest of people. People have to pay their rents, people with low wages. We have to organise their interests and that means organising hope. So this is why this is our motto of the day.
00:46What's the aim? Where do you see the party going in the future? How can it turn their support into action?
00:53I mean now we're really strong in Parliament as a strong opposition party and we want the government to, well not to be afraid of us but at least to take us seriously when it comes to all social interests.
01:04And in order to actually gain much more power we need to focus on being there in the neighbourhoods, in the cities, in the districts where people really need us right now.
01:14And so organising hope also means going to those places where maybe other parties wouldn't go so that the far right cannot gain more votes.
01:22This is our next task, to be the workers' party and not to let workers go to the far right.
01:28Your party was critical this week in the German Parliament in breaking the stalemate and essentially helping Friedrich Mertz become the Chancellor on Tuesday.
01:39Does it mark a turning point in your relationship with the Conservatives?
01:42Yes, it is. I mean, you can believe me, we would have loved to let Friedrich Mertz wait a couple of days more but we also knew that this chaos that they created would help also the far right.
01:54So we thought we need clarity and I think we should be the ones that are responsible, you know, to take the responsible role, especially if the Christian Union cannot take that role.
02:07So we said in the next coming political decisions when you need a two-third majority again, you will need to talk to us and you need to take us seriously because we are stronger than ever and you cannot only ignore us like you want to.
02:19So, what will your price be?
02:22Well, one price is that they are not working together with the right-wing AFD.
02:28That is one condition that we said we only talk with you if you don't work with them.
02:32And yes, the other condition is that in the future political decisions you take us seriously and we want to be, you know, we want to really talk about the next future decisions and not just vote for you, you know, when the chaos breaks out.
02:46But next time you come to us earlier and you talk to us seriously.
02:49One of the big issues in the last couple of days is Friedrich Merz's migration policy.
02:57There are reports he's going to declare a national emergency.
03:01We don't know yet, but he certainly wants to toughen Germany's migration rules.
03:06And that means blocking and refusing people from claiming asylum at Germany's borders.
03:11Where does the left party stay on this issue?
03:13I mean, this is first of all against all human decency, but it's also against international and European law.
03:20And Friedrich Merz will see that he will actually meet reality when this is complete nonsense.
03:26And we all know that this culture war from the right and from conservatives only pushes society to the right.
03:33So we're the one party in parliament that votes against any attacks on the rights to asylum.
03:40And we would definitely defend anyone who has to come to us and to flee from wars or anything from poverty to come to us.
03:47And we will stand by that because, yes, sadly, we're the only ones who defend this right.
03:52And when the government starts attacking that on a daily basis and is actually violating international law,
03:59we should not be just bystanders, but need to protest against that.
04:03Could you foresee a situation where the left party challenged it in court?
04:07Yes, definitely. We will actually use every path that we can take,
04:12one on the judicial level, but also on the social level,
04:15when it comes to talking to social movements and NGOs and people who are protesting against us.
04:21I think we need to defend the rights of asylum seekers, migrants, against this in every way possible.
04:28It's been an issue that has dominated the newspapers, the media, the campaign.
04:37There's a feeling that something needs to be done with this issue.
04:40Do you appreciate that sentiment?
04:43Because we've seen how well the AFD have done and the Christian Democrats together.
04:47They've done very well in the elections and they've campaigned for a tougher action on this.
04:52Do you see the need for that?
04:54How do you explain not taking tougher action on it?
04:57Well, I mean, you know, the one interior minister, like 10 years ago,
05:01he said that migration is the mother of all problems.
05:04And I always say that the mother of all problems is that the communes,
05:08you know, that our neighborhoods don't have enough money to actually spend.
05:12And this is like 20, 30 years of austerity politics that has made Germany into actually,
05:18well, I don't know what to say.
05:20We are losing our industrial base.
05:21We're losing everything on infrastructure.
05:23So what our mayors, you know, say, left-wing mayors,
05:27they say we need more money to actually find places for migrants.
05:32And so migration is not a problem per se, but we see the problems,
05:36but we need to attack them, you know, by its roots and take them by the roots
05:39and not attack the people, but the causes of the problems.
05:44The German-Israeli relationship is going to be 60 years old next week.
05:50The foreign minister of Germany, the new one, is going to Israel this weekend.
05:55What do you expect from the new German government regarding the German-Israeli relationship?
06:00Well, I don't expect too much, to be honest,
06:05because still the Israeli government is committing war crimes, in my opinion,
06:11and Benjamin Netanyahu, if he ever comes to Germany,
06:15actually, we would have to, you would actually have to take him into arrest
06:20because the International Criminal Court is actually looking for him.
06:24And I think we need to take that seriously.
06:25We need to take seriously the ones who build responsibility that we have from our past
06:30for the Israeli people, but not for war criminals.
06:34And I think we need to make that distinction and say we are actually,
06:38for a two-state solution, Israeli people should live in peace,
06:41Jewish people should live in peace and freedom, but Palestinian people as well.
06:46Thank you very much.
06:47Thank you very much.
06:47Thank you very much.