2w ago

Germany's Left Party wants to halve billionaires' wealth

www.dw.com Germany's Left Party wants to halve billionaires' wealth – DW – 02/08/2025

The Left Party says "there shouldn't be any billionaires." With Germany gearing up for an election, the far-left force has launched a new tax plan — though it will most likely never get a chance to implement it.

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Unfortunally they also want to replace NATO with an alliance with Russia ... so they are unelectable.
- This is rather an unfavorable reading of their position. And to nail down them being unelectable to this position, is very reductive in an environment where we have: fascists at 20%, rather turned rightward conservatives at 30%, geriatric and corrupt "socdems" at like 15, and libbed up greens also at roughly 15%. All of these are for various reasons also unelectable largely more unelectable. Weighing a further destruction of the economy, and a further rightward shift, up against an idealistic maybe naive position on foreign politics I mean come on.
  The actual read of their NATO position btw. Is closer to the the EU is already a military alliance with strength, and the US (+five eyes) is an unreliable/ imperialistic partner against which the EU should also strengthen itself. Largely they see Russia as worse(or at least equally bad) for the moment, but maybe not forever. Which is what the comment above is likely alluding to.
  Pretty standard socialist FP positions for Europe I'd say. If you don't get why NATO might be bad maybe brush up on Afghanistan and Iraq.
  Also their FP is not going to matter this election apart from being a check to the governments position, even if they were to somehow end up in one.
  
  in an environment where we have: fascists at 20%
  There is also the enviornement where we have fascists invading Europe and they need to be stopped now. The AfD won't get into power this election, so there is 4 more years to sort them out.
  Weighing a further destruction of the economy, and a further rightward shift, up against an idealistic maybe naive position on foreign politics I mean come on.
  Right. Not sure what this "destruction of the economy" but anyway, the foreign politics aspect is massivly more important. "maybe naive". That an understatement.
  If you don’t get why NATO might be bad maybe brush up on Afghanistan and Iraq.
  I'm well aware. But it's honestly irrelevant. Right now we need NATO for European security and a party that can't see that is either in Putin's pocket or incompetently naive.
  The actual read of their NATO position btw. Is closer to the the EU is already a military alliance with strength, and the US (+five eyes) is an unreliable/ imperialistic partner against which the EU should also strengthen itself. Largely they see Russia as worse(or at least equally bad) for the moment, but maybe not forever.
  You sure? Because the actual actual read of their NATO position is that they want it disbanded and replaced wih an security alliance the includes Russia.
  "Wir fordern die Auflösung der NATO und ihre Ersetzung durch ein kollektives Sicherheitssystem unter Beteiligung Russlands, das Abrüstung als ein zentrales Ziel hat."
  soruce: https://www.die-linke.de/partei/programm/ (under 4.6).
  Don't get me wrong, I'd I love to vote the greens in two weeks (Habeck's Ukraine position has been solid), but only if there is no chance of red/red/green (which looks good so far).
  
  The AfD won’t get into power this election, so there is 4 more years to sort them out.
  Have you been in germany this last week, have you read any of the news from there ? are you Naive about the CDUs position ? How come that this can still be the excuse ? Have you lived under CDU nothingness for most of the last 25 years? And the afd imo. only is this big because of fear of economic downturn from it's voterbase + the constant fearmongering now taken up by CDU and SPD as well as to a lesser extent Grüne.
  Not sure what this “destruction of the economy”
  With destruction of the economy I mean continuation of the neolib Status quo which has existed more or less unchanged for my entire life. Under all the parties except for afd and linke mind you. Which has and is continuing to make life here economically relatively hard. Sure not as bad as some place else but this is not an EU election it's for this place.
  You sure? Because the actual actual read of their NATO position is that they want it disbanded and replaced wih an security alliance the includes Russia. “Wir fordern die Auflösung der NATO und ihre Ersetzung durch ein kollektives Sicherheitssystem unter Beteiligung Russlands, das Abrüstung als ein zentrales Ziel hat.”
  If you just look at a party Program without listening to the politicians when they actually explain it sure yes that is the position. Do you believe party programs will be policy word for word? If you don't we can go back to my little paragraph which is from recent communication from the party heads. Also not perfect sure but much less (self) reductive.
  invading Europe and they need to be stopped now.
  They haven't been for 2+ years now don't kid yourself that they can be stopped in the way you'd like (total ukrainian victory plus short timeline is a pipedream). So tell me why I should not vote for my self interest economically, but instead vote for this idealistic, and with cheeto deals increasingly hollow, ukrainian victory.
  Don’t get me wrong, I’d I love to vote the greens in two weeks (Habeck’s Ukraine position has been solid), but only if there is no chance of red/red/green (which looks good so far).
  And if there is a chance of RRG your already threatening (with the Ukraine thing still being like 90+% solid), to throw any chance of progress for anyone that doesn't already have it all away, fucking beautifully compassionate.
  Honestly the kind of blindness to the status quos failings displayed by people along your lines is the reason I'm going to vote linke, so that there's at least someone to call out the shenanigans when they go down in the Bundestag, in our oh so infallible Democracy.
  
  Have you been in germany this last week, have you read any of the news from there ? are you Naive about the CDUs position ? How come that this can still be the excuse ?
  I'm well aware. But honestly, it was just some insignificant vote telling the government to look into something. Nothing actually happened. I don't think there is any chance that the CDU will form a coalition with the AfD.
  Have you lived under CDU nothingness for most of the last 25 years?
  I've only lived under 23 years of CDU, but I can't barley remember the Kohl years. And the 16 years under Merkel weren't that bad, really they start to look better and better as time goes on.
  And the afd imo. only is this big because of fear of economic downturn from it’s voterbase + the constant fearmongering now taken up by CDU and SPD as well as to a lesser extent Grüne.
  I can't tell you why the AfD is so big, I really don't get it. But I don't think it has anything to do with the main stream parties picking up some of their talking points. That's a quite recent thing and they have been gaining steadily for a long time for different reasons.
  And while I don't know a lot of AfD voters, they are pretty either have fallen for some conspiracy or are barley closeted racists that have issues with immigration. I've never met one that was concerned about "economic downturn".
  With destruction of the economy [...]
  Yeah, I don't see that as this acute of an issue. You even said it's "relatively hard". I'd say in Germany life is generally "relatively easy". Sure it could be improved and I do like a few of Die Linke's ideas there. But ...
  If you just look at a party Program without listening to the politicians when they actually explain it sure yes that is the position. Do you believe party programs will be policy word for word?
  Listing to the politicians doesn't help as much as you think. The thought their entire pacificst and anti-NATO rethoric was stupid even before 2014. And to not have updated that by 2022 is just insane. Their foreign policy is geopolitical suicide. I'm never gonna vote for that, no matter how great their domestic politics might be.
  This is a hyperbole, but maybe that will get my point across: Imagine if they had "all homosexuals should be killed" in their party program. Even if that isn't what they believe of practice right now ... would you vote for them if it was still there in writing? I mean, how hard is it to update a document or website?
  They haven’t been for 2+ years now don’t kid yourself that they can be stopped in the way you’d like (total ukrainian victory plus short timeline is a pipedream).
  It was always gonna be that. And only time will tell. But I'm quite sure that when, in a couple of years, we look back at right now, the only conclusion would be to have given Ukraine more weapons and faster.
  And if there is a chance of RRG your already threatening (with the Ukraine thing still being like 90+% solid), to throw any chance of progress for anyone that doesn’t already have it all away, fucking beautifully compassionate.
  It's obvious we don't prioritzise progress in the same way. It's not even about die Linke, our foreign policy doesn't need another Scholz chancellorship. The SPD should have swapped him out. That's on them as well.
  I'm honestly hoping for green/red/black at least. I don't think green/black will be possible, but that would be ideal for me.
  
  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschichte_der_Deutschen_Zentrumspartei
  Just for a little reminder why one might be pissed of at people threatening to vote CDU of all things in this environment.
  
  fascists invading Europe and they need to be stopped
  Right now we need NATO
  We need to stop fascists in Europe by checks notes allying with the country that has people openly doing Sieg Heil in the president inauguration.
- It's actually not a bad idea:
  Step 1: concede Ukrainian territories, end the war.
  Step 2: have Ukraine join the EU.
  Step 3: get EU out of NATO
  Step 4: ally with Russia and also get them into EU
  Suddenly all the territories that Ukraine lost are... meaningless, because they are in the same supra national entity.
  Radical, I know. But Russia has always been part of Europe.
  
  Kindly go fuck yourself.
  
  Not constructive. Ad hominem.
  
  Much of Russia isn’t Europe. Only step 2 is a good idea but Europe should take a larger role in NATO. After all it existed to protect Europe from Soviet imperialism.
  
  It really falters at step one though. Russia stopping for the territories it acquired is wishful thinking.

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