page_title: The Left (Germany)
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: The Left (Germany) / Structure
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Die Parteivorsitzenden der Linkspartei Katja Kipping und Bernd Rizinger. Leipziger Parteitag der Linkspartei 2018. 1. Tagung des 6. Parteitages der Partei DIE LINKE. Vom 8. bis 10. Juni 2018. Tagungsort: Leipziger Messe, Congress Center Leipzig.
context_page_description: The Left, also commonly referred to as the Left Party, is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. Through PDS, the party is the direct descendant of the Marxist-Leninist ruling party of the former East Germany, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
  Since 2012, The Left's co-chairpersons have been Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger. The party currently holds 69 seats out of 709 in the Bundestag, the federal legislature of Germany, having won 9.2% of votes cast in the 2017 federal election. Its parliamentary group is the fifth largest of six in the Bundestag, and is headed by parliamentary co-leaders Amira Mohamed Ali and Dietmar Bartsch.
  The party is represented in ten of Germany's sixteen state legislatures, including all five of the eastern states.
context_section_description: The party is organised into branches in each of the 16 states. The party has smaller branches on a local level, for which the corresponding state branches are responsible. These branches usually organise across a district, larger city, or (in Berlin), borough. The lowest unit of the party is the grassroots organization, which, depending on the density of membership, can include a residential area, a city or an entire district. In addition to these regional associations, there are working groups, interest groups and commissions working at the federal level, and partly at the state and district levels.
  The highest organ of The Left is the Party Congress. It discusses and determines the party platform, and rules on basic political and organisational matters. The most recent Party Congress was held on 22 to 24 February 2019. It elects the party executive, the 44-member Party Executive Committee (PEC), of which ten are members of the party's leadership, the Executive Board. Since June 2018, the PEC's composition has been as follows:
  The Council of Elders (Ältestenrat) is an advisory body formed in December 2007. Lothar Bisky stated the Council will "focus on the development of the party, allied and international issues, the history of the left and possible consequences for the socialist program." Its current composition is as follows:
caption: Katja Kipping (left) and Bernd Riexinger (right) at the 2018 federal party conference.
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