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ABSTRACT
The two-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affords an occasion to examine why the war has produced such deep rifts within the Left Party and the AfD. Drawing upon party documents, parliamentary proceedings, electoral and polling data and secondary literature, this article examines why Russia’s war against Ukraine proved so disruptive to both parties and explores the implications of these intraparty conflicts. Germany’s domestic politics of the Ukraine War matter given Berlin’s central role in backing the Kyiv government. This article assesses three explanations for the lack of internal unity in the Left Party and AfD regarding a new Russia policy: (a) path dependency; (b) eastern Germany, and (c) the reinforcing rather than crosscutting nature of the Ukraine War vis-à-vis the primary intraparty cleavage. It finds that the third explanation fits both Left Party and AfD cases.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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David F. Patton
David F. Patton, who is Joanne Toor Cummings ‘50 Professor of Government and International Relations at Connecticut College in New London, teaches classes on European politics. He has published books and articles on German party politics, German unification, and German foreign policy. Recent publications include ‘The ‘Old Five’: The Bonn Parties in the Berlin Republic’ in The Oxford Handbook of German Politics (2022) and ‘Catalysts for Change: Small Parties in the 2021 Bundestag Election,’ in German Politics and Society (2022).