Star andof the Bundestag 2025. is an almost written off party: Levice. He can thank the combination of old and new for his success. And one of the key elements was the campaign on social networks, he says Deutsche says.
"The Left Lives!" - exclaims the president of that party, Jan van Aken, to the delighted crowd at the celebration in Berlin after the closing of the polling stations in the Bundestag elections, while the initial forecasts of the results are displayed on the screen: 8,5 percent for the Left. In the end, that percentage rose to 8,8 percent.
How was that possible, after the party was already at around three percent of support in December?
"All of you have made this resurrection possible!" - thanks the star of social networks Heidi Rajhinek to the party base, which in the previous weeks and months throughout Germany conducted an intensive door-to-door campaign to attract voters. She does not mention her role as the leading candidate alongside Jan van Aken.
How did the Left manage to win young voters?
The reach of Heidi Rajhinek on the social networks X and TikTok was much talked about at the end of the election campaign. As well as her speeches in the Bundestag, after the Christian Democratic parties CDU and CSU with their candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz, together with part of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and now the Liberal Party (FDP) expelled from the Bundestag, voted for a drastic tightening of the asylum policy.
There are many reasons why the Left managed to win over a large number of voters at the last moment - primarily younger ones. In the age group from 18 to 24, the party became number one with 25 percent, ahead of the AfD (21 percent). In the 2021 elections, two other parties took the lead: the Greens (23 percent) and the FDP (21 percent).
In the past, the Greens were more popular among young people
Even the expert on election campaigns, political scientist from the Free University of Berlin, Antonios Souris, is surprised by that turn of events. From a scientific point of view, the very large swing of voters in terms of opting for a certain party is an interesting discovery, he says in an interview with Deutsche Welle. "I remember that during other elections in the past years, we often talked about the turn of young people to the right." That trend still exists, but at the same time there is also a left turn.
The Greens used to be very popular among young people, especially at the time when hundreds of thousands of them took part in the movement's climate protests Fridays for Future. But that enthusiasm waned over time. What does this mean for young voters? "A certain type of voter was created which, in the end, did not prove to be sustainable," Souris concludes.
The Greens warned against voting for the Left
On the eve of the elections, the Left achieved great success with its campaign on social networks, Souris points out. But we must not ignore the fact that the party's campaign on the ground, among the people, was very strong. "The left was not only present on the Internet, but also on the street," recalls the political scientist from Berlin.
The fact that it is an opposition party was also in favor of the Left. "She was a bit of an outsider, while the Greens were part of the government." According to the first analyses, a large number of voters switched from the Greens to the Left. The fact that the Greens warned on social media that votes for the Left are wasted votes, thinking that the Left will not enter the Bundestag, may have contributed to this. It is possible that many voters decided to vote for that party precisely because of this.
Classic left-wing topics: rents, wages, inflation
In this context, Suris also mentions young, progressive people who are open to refugees and whose views the Left might have represented better than the Greens. But these are just assumptions for now. "We can't prove that yet, but the result suggests it."
In addition, voters were attracted by classic social issues, those that affect people with more modest incomes: high rents, wages, inflation. And that is one of the reasons why the Left experienced a rise.
Triumph in the Neukölln district of Berlin
"The party also has candidates who are the embodiment of that program," adds Suris and cites the triumph in the Berlin district of Neukölln as an example. It is a settlement with a large number of migrants, where many people live on social assistance.
That electoral district is located in the former West Berlin, a city that was divided until the reunification of Germany in 1990. Ferat Kocak from the Left won a direct mandate there - which happened for the first time in history.
The Failure of the Alliance Sarah Wagenknecht
The party Savez Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW), which broke away from the Left in January 2024, played a secondary role, both in Neukölln and in Berlin as a whole. At the city level, she won 6,6 percent of the vote, while the Left, with almost 20 percent of the votes won in the German capital, became the strongest political force.
In September and October 2024, the situation was quite different in the elections in the three East German states: the Left suffered a heavy defeat everywhere. "I think that a few months ago, no one could have predicted this turn of events," says political analyst Souris. His explanation: BSW did not have the momentum that the Left got from good campaigns.
Many voters were not sure exactly what BSW stood for, other than the personality of Sara Wagenknecht. The initial euphoria surrounding that party has probably passed. Suris also recalls the party's rapid entry into the governments of the federal states of Brandenburg and Thuringia, which may not have had the desired effect for the BSW.
From doubt to triumph
Even Gregor Gizi, a party veteran, is surprised and touched by the success of the Left. Just a few months ago, he doubted that his party would be able to pass the five percent threshold, so together with two long-time colleagues, he launched a campaign called "Mission of gray curls". (Mission Silberlocke).
The goal was to win at least three direct mandates in order to ensure presence in the Bundestag even without five percent at the national level, according to the German electoral law.
In the end, that Plan B was not even needed - the Left won enough votes. Gizzi knows to whom he owes this success: to the new, mostly young members and the party leadership.
The leading candidate in the election was 36-year-old Heidi Rajhinek, who shares the position with 63-year-old Jan van Aken. 35-year-old Ines Schwertner, who only joined the Left in June 2024, is also in the party presidency.
Gregor Gizzi – the oldest member of the Bundestag
In a moment of triumph, Gizzi recalls the past years filled with internal struggles in the party. "We were in an existential crisis, because we were only dealing with ourselves," he says. The lowest point was the division within the party and the establishment of the BSW.
Now, however, the 77-year-old politician is looking forward to delivering the opening speech at the constitutive session of the Bundestag as the oldest deputy.
For Sarah Wagenknecht, however, these elections could also mean the end of her political career. After the setback as BSW failed to pass the census, she disappointedly stated that she felt that the media and polling agencies were responsible for her result.
However, there is still a glimmer of hope for BSW. The party is considering the possibility of a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court, because allegedly many Germans abroad could not vote due to organizational problems.
