Searching for the left in Berlin and Europe: It's just not there!

There is something new in Europe, that is true. We had translated Erich Maria Remarque's famous work into our language as "All Quiet on the Western Front": "Im Westen nichts Neues".

Now, there is something.

We are in the midst of a development that reminds us that not every new thing is a good thing.

The situation is the exact opposite of Remarque's title: There is a new development in the West that is a product of the old, but with a different kind of reactionism. It is already clear what kind of strange man is at the helm of the USA. It is also understood that Western Europe will follow him. This had already been on the agenda for quite some time.

According to some, Europe is returning to the 1930s; but this is a different kind of madness than the one in those years. No one has any intention of following the path of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Salazar, etc., exactly. Besides, the export-dependent manufacturing industry and the finance industry would not allow it. But there is a new regime of oppression stepping forward against the peoples.

We must analyze and define this.

Let us look at the left that has appeared on the scene in Berlin today.

ELIF ERALP'S CHILDISH FANTASIES

As is known, Elif Eralp achieved something that had never happened in this city. As the candidate for the Left Party (Die Linke), she emerged as the top party in the election for state premier and mayor of the metropolitan city. It is uncertain whether she will be able to sit in that seat. What she could do if she did is also full of question marks. That she is a beacon of hope is one of the baseless claims. Why, you ask?

There are many answers. But the most important one is probably that this party has no relationship with any leftism in the sense of socialism. This is being ignored. The hollowed-out socialism that comes out of the mouths of Eralp and her friends, very rarely and with great difficulty, has nothing to do with social transcendence.

Do not be fooled by the name: We have such people here too... We are facing not a party, but an ordinary "cult for pulling chestnuts out of the fire for capital" and its "congregation."

An operation that crushes all leftist connotations is actually coming. Just as Ekrem İmamoğlu, Özgür Özel, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and their teams are leftist, so is Elif Eralp and her party, Die Linke (The Left Party), which thinks it is doing politics with some identity-based banners that have long since broken away from the working class.

Despite this, the fact that she is being beaten by the entire system just because she came out on top in the polls is another matter.

Ultimately, we need to find a reason for all these operations. There are forces that want to use the emergence of such a party—which reminds one of "The Dying Swan" and the large fish being gnawed at and shrinking in Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea"—in a way that will pave the way for the AfD as a "radical Christian democratic" party. The goal is for the AfD to enter the system through coalitions. It is understood that they will be successful.

Essentially, three issues are at the center of the attacks currently aiming to block the path to power for Elif Eralp and her party. First of all, they have latched onto this childish fantasy: Thinking that they can solve the rental problem by purchasing more than 220,000 housing units held by large real estate companies in the center of monopoly capitalism (calling it "expropriation") and paying an amount that, according to some tables, might reach 36 billion euros to those companies, is an adventure. That is what they say. Furthermore, the issue of party deputies in the Left Party having ties to antisemitism and the Arab underworld is being brought up. These are all empty words. Why, you ask?

Because these media-supported attacks do not just aim to prevent the Left Party from forming a "left" coalition with the SPD and the Greens in Berlin. The only concern is not just the SPD, the Greens, and the CDU sidelining Elif Eralp to form a government. There must be something else that goes beyond this.

One would have to be blind not to see the calculations of the circles trying to prepare the AfD for power with its sister party, the CDU. We can think that the "left" of Turkish origin, which has viewed Turkey as an "anomaly" and a dictatorship from the very beginning, can be used in an operation. Fifty years ago, there was another left of Turkish origin here. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then...

An operation in which the third and subsequent generations of Turkish origin will also be used is in the works. The ruling classes in crisis are trying to make some innovations in this hegemonic power of Europe ("geoeconomic power"). The new right is following a method that will discredit not only the left but also immigrants in the eyes of the native majority... Through this liberal left, which has little connection left with leftism, and by involving the Left Party, they are determined to discredit it once again. Could the goal be to suppress the general level of wages even further?

Europe is shifting further to the right, this is true. But they have already achieved this by leaving the left without a left, by making it like themselves, by making it identity-based, and by completely severing it from its class roots. The Left Party only has "left" in its name. The masters of Europe, especially in Germany, are constructing a new regime of oppression. However, it is impossible for this to be racist. According to a 2024 report by Bertelsmann, Germany needs at least 288,000 net immigrant labor entries every year. This figure is exactly 400,000 in the research of the IAB-Institut für Arbeitsmarkt und Berufsforschung (Institute for Employment Research). There are also studies stating that there should be an even higher influx of immigrant labor. In such an export economy, which boss would allow racism? Or which state?

This anti-illegal immigration stance is a game played by the AfD targeting the impoverished "White German" voters in lower-income groups. The second bait is to reconnect cheap Russian energy to the lines for industrial capital. We have mentioned these before.

EUROPEAN DEMOCRACY: GOD AND HIS PROPHETS

However, let us not deny Eralp and her ilk their due; we cannot be too angry at those who flee to Germany/Europe and propagate that they will save Turkey by carrying democracy from there. Perhaps they are acting with a certain naivety. But they are very ignorant. And they are very servile. They worship a god called European democracy. There is no such god.

There is no search for a transcendent social organization.

Let us correct it by saying, "There is no effective exit." Because there are many small, ineffective groupings.

Eastern Europe has gone completely dark. Let us look at Western and Central Europe: Meloni in Italy, Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, the FPÖ and Herbert Kickl in Austria, Reform UK and Nigel Farage in England—what would they not dare to do after an AfD government and coalition in Germany?

But this is not a racist right in Germany. Let us call it a reminder of hierarchy. Why would imperial centers built on exports jeopardize the superiority of the "White European" in the hierarchy with racism and aggressive nationalism?

The AfD is an extreme right-wing party. It is an enemy of the working class. It is tasked with suppressing the general level of wages. Well, are the others any different?

This is what happens when there is no effective left in Europe that can propose an alternative world to the working classes. No one should look for such a left.

Elif Eralp is very naive; she represents those who think that plucking a hair from a pig is profit and leftism.

There is no such world. There is no such Germany, there is no such Europe. For now, there is no solution either.

There is a so-called opposition wave that has managed to pass off the servility of the dependent to the center and monopoly capitalism as democracy.

Let no one be overjoyed... The situation is dire...