She Ripped German Conservatives on Social Media. They Didn't Forget.
Heidi Reichinnek built a loyal following with rapid-fire, acid-tongued takedowns of conservatives and Germany's political establishment, a star status that helped bring her political party, the far-left Die Linke, back into Parliament earlier this year.
Not everyone was a fan.
In viral social media posts and widely viewed speeches in Parliament, Ms. Reichinnek, a leader of Die Linke, angered the conservative Christian Democrats of Chancellor Friedrich Merz. So much so that they led an effort this week to block her from taking a seat on a prestigious and sensitive committee in Parliament that oversees intelligence agencies.
Conservatives also successfully mustered the votes to block two members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, from taking seats on the committee, which is usually staffed with lawmakers from both the government and the opposition.
The AfD has been recently classified as 'extremist' by domestic intelligence that the committee oversees. Die Linke has not.
The rejection of Ms. Reichinnek showed the degree to which social media — and its discontents — is increasingly shaping German politics. Conservative party leaders had cited Ms. Reichinnek's critiques of them, which have come at times in wildly popular TikTok videos, as reason to bar her from the committee.
But the vote also underscored the difficulties facing Germany's governing coalition, which includes center-right and center-left parties, as the nation's political momentum flows toward the extremes, whether right or left.
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