Die Linkspartei

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Die Linkspartei or Linkspartei.PDS is a left-winged political party in Germany.

[edit] History

After the end of the GDR in 1990, the former Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) changed to the SED-PDS and later to the Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus (PDS). In the former GDR it was very successful in state election and it had a causus in the federal parliament. But it always failed in Western Germany.

In the 2000s there were a lot of so-called reformes of labour market policy and social systems with very hard restrictions for poorer and especially unemployed people in Germany. These so-called reforms were made by the Social democrats (SPD) and the Greens, who were traditionally the left-winged parties in Germany.

Some people, who left the SPD therefore and some people from Trade Unions founded the Wahlgemeinschaft Arbeit und Soziale Gerechtigkeit (WASG) - Englisch Electorers Union for Work and Social Justice - in Western Germany. Many students, people of attac etc. joined it. They - and although the PDS - realized that there was no chance to win mandates in elections as concurrents. So they dicided to found a new party, Die Linkspartei.

In the last federal elections the joined the parliament, in the state of Berlin they joined the state government.

[edit] Programme

Die Linkspartei is a left-winged party. It is the only party in the federal parliament, which believes in the need of more regulations of markets. So the working markets policy of them wants to have more people employed by public programme and more taxes for winners of capital marked instead on work. They are against study fees and want to have only a Comprehensive school instaed of two or three different types of further school in most German states. Their foreign policy follows the old position of the Green Party Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and is strictly against any militarical engagement of German soldiers. Some discussions are on the possibility of peace keeping missions of the United Nations. In the field of civil rights they copied the position of the Greens, too.