Left Party Adopts Election Program in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern After Flood of Motions

Education and Social Investment

Linken-Landeschef Hennis Herbst said: 'Wir gehen mit Selbstbewusstsein in diese Wahl.' He stated the party is in a good starting position in the state and there is 'ordentlich Rückenwind' from the federal party.

Education policy, considered the most important state-level political issue in polls, features prominently in the program. The Left wants to allocate 300 million euros from the state budget for more staff and individual support in schools and daycare centers.

The program calls for hundreds of additional positions for teachers, school social workers, and school psychologists. Education minister and lead candidate Simone Oldenburg stated: 'Wir hören nicht auf, auch in die Zukunft der Jugendlichen und damit in unser aller Zukunft zu investieren.'

Oldenburg, who serves as the party's lead candidate for the state election and currently as education minister of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, said the state leads nationwide in educational equal opportunity. The Left also wants to maintain fee-free daycare, a policy favored by Minister-President Schwesig and the SPD.

The party also wants to invest in child and youth work, culture, rural mobility, digital infrastructure, and support services for victims of digital violence.

Fiscal Policy and Constitutional Demands

On housing, the Left announces it will expand municipal and cooperative housing companies and more strongly regulate rising rents. The party also wants to launch a Bundesrat initiative to enshrine housing as a fundamental right in the Basic Law.

In a key fiscal demand, the Left wants to abolish the debt brake enshrined in the state constitution of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. However, there is currently no two-thirds majority in sight in the state parliament to amend the debt brake.

The party also wants to reintroduce a wealth tax, which party chairman Hennis Herbst calculates could bring Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 1.7 billion euros. The wealth tax would have to be enacted by the Bundestag, not the state parliament, and the black-red federal government currently rejects it.

The Left demands that the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern co-initiate a ban procedure against the AfD before the Federal Constitutional Court. The party sees itself as the only party that consistently fights the extreme right in the state.

Anti-Fascism and Political Positioning

The program proposes making May 8 an official public holiday in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as the Day of Liberation from National Socialism. The Left also wants to promote networks and associations against the far-right and better equip the State Agency for Civic Education.

Simone Oldenburg said: 'Wo links ist, hat rechts außen keinen Platz.' Before the party congress, the Left accused the SPD and CDU of watering down the firewall against the far-right and allowing erosion of the demarcation from the AfD at the municipal level.

Hennis Herbst said Die Linke demonstrated 'wie verlässliches Regieren aussieht' in the red-red coalition. He mentioned improvements in crèches and after-school care from 2027 that the state government recently announced following a popular initiative.

Herbst also stated: 'Diese Wahl wird nicht zwischen SPD und AfD entschieden werden.' He added: 'Die entscheidende Frage lautet deshalb: Auf welcher Seite des Landtags wird es mehr Stühle geben?' He criticized the CDU, saying: 'Die CDU wird immer inhaltsleerer und gleichzeitig immer weiter nach rechts getrieben.'

SPD, Die Linke, and the opposition Greens proposed a constitutional reform; the CDU currently opposes it. In the current NDR poll for the state election, the Left is at 13 percent, which would be three percentage points more than five years ago, placing it in third place.

The state election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is scheduled for 20 September. Die Linke already elected its lead candidate and list for the state election at a party congress in March.

At the Schwerin congress, delegates also elected former state parliament member Karen Larisch as deputy state chair, succeeding Sebastian Lange who resigned for personal reasons. Larisch is 56 years old, a social worker and educator, has been a member of the state board since 2022, and is co-chair of the district council in Rostock; she sat in the Schwerin state parliament until 2019.

Bundestag member Dietmar Bartsch and Saxony-Anhalt lead candidate Eva von Angern gave speeches at the Schwerin party congress. 26 amendment motions were submitted on the morning of the party congress.