Germany's The Left party sees surge in support after going viral online
Germany's Die Linke or The Left party is experiencing a last-minute surge in numbers less than one week before Germany's national election on 23 February.
The left-wing populist party, which polled at around 4% in January, has seen its numbers rise to 6% to 7% in recent weeks.
One survey from pollster YouGov puts the party at 9% — a significant jump from a month ago and well above the 5% threshold it would need to enter the Bundestag.
Ahead of a surge in numbers, one of the party's rising stars, Heidi Reichinnek, went viral on social media for passionately criticising Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union, for his controversial decision to accept votes from the far right for his migration proposals.
'You've made yourself an accomplice, and today you've changed this country for the worse,' Reichinnek said of Merz in her spontaneous speech, which the party says has been seen over 30 million times.
"Resist fascism in this country. To the barricades," she said.
According to Maik Fielitz from the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society, Reichinnek's speech went viral, similar to the content that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has successfully promoted on social media for years.
"Candidates like Heidi Reichinnek act as political influencers. The aim is to make them known first through their personality and only later through their political positioning," Fielitz said.
The party is aware of its recent social media success, with The Left politician Dietmar Bartsch telling Euronews the party aims to counter the flood of pro-AfD online messaging with "well-made, credible left-wing content".
The Left want to "clarify misinformation and set our own topics" online, he added.
Doubters to believers?
According to domestic media reports, The Left's membership has surged to its highest point in 15 years, causing the party to hunt for larger campaign venues in the past two weeks.
An under-18 survey also found that the party came first among children and young adults, with 20.84% of support.
Prior to the last-minute surge in popularity, The Left was unsure if they would reach the threshold to enter the Bundestag.
The party's fate seemed uncertain when one of its most prominent faces, Sahra Wagenknecht, splintered from it and created her own just over a year ago.
The leftist-nationalist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) had a strong showing in the June European elections and the September three-state elections. Yet, the BSW's national campaign has failed to have the same impact.
Meanwhile, the doubts among The Left party candidates about their chances were so strong that three of its members campaigned for direct mandates to enter the parliament.
However, the viral star Reichinnek said the recent boost in popularity gave her renewed confidence.
"I don't have to believe in miracles, I experience them," she told daily newspaper Rheinische Post.
The Left has put forward two candidates for chancellor, Reichinnek and Jan van Akken. It has made taxing the wealthy and ensuring affordable housing fundamental to its campaign.
The party is focusing on "people's everyday problems", she said. "For example, we on the left have programmed a rent gouging calculator and a heating cost calculator," Reichinnek explained.
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