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“I am a socialist.” On a stage in Brandenburg, the socialist is Luigi Pantisano, 46 years old, son of Calabrian parents, and from today the first Italian-German to become leader of a party in Germany.
In fact, the left of the Linke elected him to the presidency in Potsdam with 53% of the vote. A very meager result, to be honest, which certainly spoiled the flavor of the party. Also due to a rather weak speech, closely criticized by some analysts.
«I am the son of Italian immigrant workers»
The architect born in Weiblingen, Baden-Wuerttemberg, attacked Friedrich Merz and the Social Democrats in no uncertain terms, promising to win back the workers’ vote.
«I am the son of ‘Gastarbeiter’ (immigrant workers, ed.) from an Italian family. My parents worked hard to give me and my siblings a better future. I learned to fight from them”, he said proudly, without however really managing to captivate the audience of over 500 delegates gathered in Brandenburg.
At his side Ines Schwerdtner, confirmed as co-presidency with 86%.
Criticism of Merz and the defense of workers
«Merz just wants to make his rich friends even richer. And the Social Democrats do nothing but collaborate”, he began when presenting his candidacy.
A not very simple audience, from which several polemical interventions against the party leaders had already emerged during the congress.
Pantisano said he spoke with workers in Bremenhaven, “people who work hard, who don’t have time to see their children except on the weekend.”
“While Merz says that we have to work 13 hours instead of 8, and that we have to continue up to 70,” he said indignantly. «We put workers’ issues at the center of our program».
Childhood in Calabria and political commitment
A former boy who spent his childhood in Calabria with three other brothers, from 2025 he has a place in the Bundestag as a parliamentarian of the Republic, where he is deputy group leader of the Linke.
He also attacked rearmament: “We in the Linke want peace.”
Returning to his experience, Pantisano recalled that in the past he had personally experienced the feeling of “contempt” of those who looked down on people like him.
“The problem is not those who arrive in Europe on a dinghy, but the contempt of those who fly over our heads in private jets,” he said with an implicit reference to Kanzler, who famously has a pilot’s license.
Linke’s growth in the polls
After years of agony, the party founded by Lafontaine, who left, is currently in excellent health and has between 10 and 12% in the main polls.
Almost on par with the values of the Social Democrats between 12 and 13%. However, the appeal of Sara Wagenknecht’s party (Lafontaine’s companion) seems to have faded, as it has long been well below the threshold for entry into parliament.