(Adnkronos) – The German party Die Linke (The Left) has recorded a boom in subscriptions in recent weeks, bringing the number of its members to 81,200. In announcing this, the movement itself underlined that this is the biggest increase in membership since its foundation in 2007.
Since the controversial vote in the Bundestag on January 29, when the CDU relied on the support of Alternative for Germany to pass a motion on immigration, Die Linke has registered 17,470 new members, a spokesperson said, stating that since January the number has risen by 23,500 units.
For the leadership of the movement, it was the mobilization of the party in the electoral campaign that pushed many voters to sign up, even if fears of a potential right-wing shift in German politics with the renunciation of the ‘cordon sanitaire’ by the other parties around the AfD had an impact.
“Die Linke is growing and attracting more and more people who are looking for fair politics”, said President Jan van Aken. The new members from January have an average age of 28.7 years and 53% are women. The average age of all party members – with 42% women – is therefore now 43.31 years.
