this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
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[–] ExtraJudgement@lemmy.world 45 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Calling "Die Linke" far-left is imho, frankly, insane. Upwards of 80% of their positions are virtually the same ones the SPD had back in the few decades of them being actually moderately left under Willy Brandt. If you want far-left, that's the MLPD.

Just because every other major party keeps moving further and further to the right doesn't magically make the only moderate-left wing party far-left.

And for clarification: Left vs right is the political axis of the economic class struggle. It's neither liberal vs illiberal nor progressive vs conservative.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

In Germany this is especially entertaining: Die Linke are literally the only political party with seats in the Bundestag who don't think mass murdering of children is totally acceptable as long as the murderers belong to a good race and the children to a bad race.

Even the German Greens hold that view that the race of a person is more important than their actual actions in determining the moral acceptability of what they do, to such an extreme level that even mass murdering of children becomes acceptable if one is a Jew.

So calling Die Linke far-left is pretty much an admission that, at least for these people, in Germany NOT holding the same views of the value of human life and the importance of race as the NAZIs held, is an "extremist" position.

[–] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Are leftists humanitarian?

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

I like to think that the basic principle of being Leftwing is "the greater good for the greatest number" and you will notice that there's no qualifications there about some deserving more good things than others.

You will also observe that Equality is invariably a concern of Leftwing political ideologies, even if they diverge in for example thinking that we should aim for Equality Of Outcomes vs thinking we should aim for Equality Of Opportunity instead because the former isn't actually possible.

IMHO, being a Humanitarian naturally follows from wanting to maximize the wellness of everybody in an equal way.

In summary, people who are genuinelly leftwing out of principle (so, those who reached their leftwing political views from their own personal principles, not tose who are tribalist followers of leftwing parties or ideologies that merelly parrot "their" team's slogans) are Humanists in practice - in what they desire and what they do - even when not explicitly identifying as Humanists.

[–] Slashme@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

MLPD

I can never not read this as "My Little Pony Deutschland".

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 5 points 22 hours ago

Better than the Major/Minor League Police Department that my brain came up with

[–] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 33 points 1 day ago (3 children)

It shows how much the left-right goalposts have shifted, that even centrist and centre-left policies and positions are seen as "far-left".

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's a common tactic from the right: framing absolutely anything even remotely progressive as "far left".
Like "side loading" apps.
Works too.

[–] j_overgrens@feddit.nl 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm with you on the shifting baseline (towards the right), but to call Die Linke "centrist" or "centre-left"... Let's say: perhaps it's the overcorrection we need.

[–] greenbit@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago

I gotta be honest I haven't investigated their policies that deep but they seem like every leftist European party, with moderate takes, not that radical and absolutely not extremist like a "far" nomiker implies

[–] knatschus@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 22 hours ago

Please tell me where Die Linke is left of the 20th century SPD, hell even the Wirtschaftswunder CDU would be roughly the same.

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[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

What's far left about this party? Genuinely asking, since I don't have time to go through their program, and hoping someone else can give some highlights.

Far-right groups tend to be fascist, racist, violent, for disenfranchisement of everyone except ultra wealthy, pro Russia (for some reason). But what's the equivalent to this "far"-ness on the left side?

To me it seems like it's mostly one side that is far anything.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

As far as I can tell, "Far-left" in Germany means that you don't think that mass murdering of children becomes absolutelly fine when those doing the mass murdering claim to represent the Jewish People and the children are Muslim.

I say this because in Germany Die Linke is the only party with seats in the Bundestag which haven't unwaveringly supported the self-proclaimed "Jewish Nation" whilst they indescriminatelly murdered Palestinians including tens of thousands of children.

Even the German Greens have been overtly pro Genocide as long as the right ethnicity is the one doing the killing, which is probably why their vote in Berlin fell from 18% to 14% all the while the right is in government in Germany and fucking things up (so one would expect that all of the leftwing would gain from it) - "We unwaveringly support a Genocide as long as those doing it represent a specific ethnicity" isn't actually leftwing (in fact, it's closer to the thinking of the AfD or even NAZIsm than to leftwing thinking).

I mean, if when it comes to mass murdering of people you goozestep alongside Politico it's only natural that people who aren't unthinking tribalists will conclude you have the same values.

I've actually lived in a couple of big cities in Europe and my impression of Berlin is that people there are possibly even more cosmopolitan and forwards thinking than in Amsterdam and way ahead of London, so this result (both the rise of Die Linke and the fall of the Greens) isn't at all surprising.

[–] lath@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

Same thing, but they hate regular left more than far-right does.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 23 hours ago

Privatelly owned Propaganda outlets in the West: "Any party whose policies are not dedicated to maximizing the wealth of the rich is extremist".

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 58 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes! More nationalisation please! Here in the US we really need to nationalise spacex and starlink to start with and go from there.

[–] TuringCompleteSocialist@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

All billionaire assets should be nationalized. Though I'm not sure what would be the best way to handle all the media conglomerates the government will end up owning after that.

[–] gusgalarnyk@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago

First, no single person should be allowed to own a significant portion of a single product line within a country. So if a single person owns 10% of all media companies in the US, they should be forced to sell until they own less than 1%.

Second, no single company should be allowed to own a significant portion of a single product line's market share within a country. So if a single company owns 30% of all car sales in the US, they should be forced to split up into smaller companies until they own less than ~15%.

Imagine no billionaires, imagine workers owning a meaningful portion of the company they work at, imagine busting companies so quickly and at such a low bar we never have to worry about monopolies again. No SpaceX being critical national infrastructure, no google being allowed to be a giant for so long, no internet line capture by your local ISP, no banks so large them failing could shatter the country, no AI bubble worth anything to worry about.

We can do it everywhere.

[–] kibblebits@quokk.au 66 points 1 day ago (2 children)
[–] Slashme@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Well that's Berlin - the most liberal city in Germany, reacting to the rightward shift of the country and the most unlikeable centre-right chancellor that the Christian Democrats could find (Merz), but the overall picture isn't that bright.

The AfD has done extremely well in Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, getting more votes than any other single party. In Meck-Pomm, the centre-to-left parties will be able to form a government, but in Saxony, there's a good chance that the AfD will work together with a new populist party that split from the leftists and actually get into power.

[–] AviAdi@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Don't get your hopes up. Now they have to deliver on these promises. And if they completely fuck it up guess who gets into power?

[–] mycodesucks@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Actually, given the past decade or so in practically every country in the world on both sides of the spectrum?

No, you don't. You don't have to deliver. You just have to do something, no matter how badly your implementation winds up.

[–] fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com 13 points 1 day ago

Progress over perfection

[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

"We need a clear ​commitment to combating antisemitism; otherwise, things won't work with us," he said.

That better not be an anti Palestine thing.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 28 points 1 day ago (6 children)

How is a municipal government going to nationalize anything? Wouldn't you need control of the national government for this?

[–] narinciye@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

Nationalizing is a bit of overambitious promise to be honest. However, they are hopefully going to pursue winding down the housing bubble by any other means possible. She recently told they will form a dedicated team just to deal with the greedy contrcts with illegal terms, to start with. No subrenting with higher rent, no short term contracts for furnished apartments with double price. They also plan to initiate more housing projects hopefully.

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Last one is the most important. Even with considerable public housing, you will have issues if your housing stock is not enough to meet demand. If you artificially reduce prices, then you just change the problem from price to long wait-lists. Most major western cities have a housing shortage right now due to demographic changes.

[–] boringgus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Not an expert, but:

Germany is a federation of states, this was a state election, not a local municipal election.

There was a referendum about this issue that was broadly popular a couple of years ago.

The most likely coalition is going to be, greens + social democrats + socialists.

The socialists have said this is their red line on joining the coalition, The greens want to do it, but the social democrats are opposed and framed this the socialists simply not wanting to govern (this same coalition has ruled the state of Berlin before, though).

We will see.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Is there a word for “munipalising”?

[–] LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

That's sort of what I'm wondering. Do they actually mean nationalizing or did they just say that because there's not a word for local public ownership.

Which is weird because it's actually a fairly common thing. There should be a word for it. I mean maybe there is but I don't know it.

Edit: I looked it up and it seems like the verb in this case would be to municipalize, as you said. This word seems to be very rarely used but if that's what they meant there is a term for it.

[–] dubyakay@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Berlin has more than municipal power though. It has state power in the federation of German states.

To draw a comparison, it's as if Toronto was its own province, without the Ford government being able to dictate what happens within its limits. Or Houston was a state, without Texas being able to extend its corrupt fingers over it.

[–] arrow74@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Let's keep in mind this was translated from German

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Indeed, the German word this was likely translated from has a different meaning. A literal translation would be something like "to transfer into government ownership", so the nation as a whole doesn't fearure in it, even though the overall meaning is very similar.

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 2 points 1 day ago

I think they meant munipalising + as the other commenter said, Berlin is its own state in the German federation, so it still makes sense to call it nationalising

[–] kestrel7_7@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)
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[–] rhythmisaprancer@quokk.au 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I just watched a video about Vienna housing, in it the presenter said that about 1/3 or Vienna's housing was municipal-owned. So maybe not nationalized but a close by reference for what could be done.

[–] BenLeMan@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Yes, Vienna is a positive example although they sold off large portions of their holdings in the past and had to buy them back for a lot of money, IIRC.

[–] lucullus@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 day ago

Germanys national law already allows for the local government (be it municipal or state level) to force properties into public ownership. The previous owner has to get paid for that. So its basically a government forced sell of the property to the corresponding public entity (typically the city).

They could have done that all along without any law changes. The discussion is only about if they should do that.

[–] it_depends_man@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (7 children)

The principle is that whatever the national law says has to be followed, but if there isn't a national law, the federal country can do something. Also housing is more of a local issue.

There are laws to "eminent domain" stuff, but it has been mostly used for Autobahn and coal mining in the past and only affected peasants in little villages who couldn't fight back.

Otherwise good question, that's what almost everyone is asking at the moment.

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[–] whoisearth@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

As a Canadian this is what concerns me most about Mark Carney and his pedigree. He's a part of the old guard.

I fully feel he understands the severity and the velocity of which we need to move but I don't think he's willing to commit to the levels of austerity the times call for. In Canada we should also be pledging to nationalize or re-nationalize our industries. People are going to lose jobs en masse thanks to America. The writing is on the wall, the safest employer out there right now for the last 10+ years has been government.

If you're old or astute enough you accept this is simply the cycle that history goes in. We need a new New Deal for Canada and Canadians, but I'd argue as this thread is about Germany that we all need it.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Let me apologize it for the same way people to for the AfD:

They're not real far-left, they're just the first nominally leftist party in a while. First of all, the far-left got defeated in 1992, with the fall of the Soviet Union. Sure, you can find the odd lolcow communist online, but they're a small minority.

The reality is that people got enough of this unregulated capitalism nonsense. They have landlord fatigue. They have car fatigue. They have billionaire fatigue. And all the Nazi parties like the SPD, CDU, and AfD have ignored these concerns, all because they didn't want to hurt the feelings of Peter Thiel.

Everything is so literally Hitler nowadays, good to see some change. Call me back once they have Stalin mustaches and opening the Gulags!

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

I got really confused when I thought the title was "Far right party wins berlin election" and saw the turkish name.

I only clocked the good news when I read "the left party"

Great news! Yaay!

[–] moldy_rice@piefed.keyboardvagabond.com 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] catsarebadpeople@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This person is a Russian agent

Lol no. Fuck Putin.

[–] Hueristic_Autistic@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Hope the German government keeps up with the properties. I say that because for example in the US, they have you paying taxes for infrastructure upkeep and we have lights out on the highways and overgrown trees that people are gonna hit their head into. You know what I do every spring and fall in my area because the fucking city won't, I go around with pruning loppers and cut down the overgrowth so tall tax payers don't hit their fucking heads into the trees. In the winter I shovel in front of the nearest crossing light buttons because the city won't.

So I pray to God Germany will use the tax payer money to actually upkeep the properties and not let them go to ruins and have people living in absolute fucking shit holes.

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