The Linke Partei's Wagenknecht appears to be moving the party even further to the left to the ideological position that the SPD abandoned back in the 1960s and 1980s. It is interesting to note that the SPD, when it was the far left party, a true socialist party, consistently lost elections. It was only when the party leadership abandoned the far left policies that the party became an "electable" party for moderate-left to moderate-right voters. When it moved back to the left in the 1980s as a response to the rise of the Green Party, the SPD was again unelectable until Gerhard Schröder moved they part back to the center. We see in a sense that the SPD has moved to the left since 2005/2009, to recapture voters who voted for the Linke Partei. Overall, the Linke Partei will continue to remain a viable leftist party, gaining circa 10% at each election, but it will not under current ideological directions be a viable candidate for control over the chancellor in the near future.
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