Germany: Left Party conference speaker talks about executing the rich by Arthur Lyons
Germany’s ‘Die Link’ (The Left) party gathered over the weekend at its ‘Strategy Congress’ to talk politics and its own role in Germany.
During the gathering, one woman who gave a speech was caught on video saying that, once in power, they may need to execute the rich, Die Welt reports.
“An energy transition is necessary after a revolution as well. Once we have shot the one percent of the rich, we will still want to heat our homes and travel,” the woman says to applause.
After the woman finishes speaking, instead of directly pushing back against such a statement, Die Link’s party leader, Bernd Riexinger, replies to the woman, saying: “I would like to say, we won’t shoot her, we will use her for useful work.”
The crowd laughed and applauded at Riexinger’s comments.
After the video had been seen by scores of people on Twitter, Riexinger addressed the woman’s comments again, saying that they had been “taken completely out of context”. However, he did say that “It was and is unacceptable. I regret that I did not immediately reject him unequivocally.”
But it may be too little, too late. For many, statements like these only confirm what other German parties accuse Die Link of regularly, namely that they are not in favor of a democracy and that they would like to see the German system changed back to what it was under the GDR.
Markus Blume, the CSU party secretary, has called on Riexinger to step down in light of the scandal.
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