BERLIN: Helmut Scholz is up for a fight — and the political establishment is running scared. The German left, he says, won’t be fooled again. Speaking in Berlin this week, the international coordinator of Germany’s insurrectionary new electoral phenomenon, the Linkspartei (Left party), said the country was in crisis and the main parties had no solutions.

“We want to reattract people who have been turned off politics and get them back,” Mr Scholz said. “We’re trying to give all people in Germany a new perspective.

“Germany is in a critical economic and social situation. We have to face up to the task. We have to find another direction.”

As the September 18 federal election looms, the left party, comprising ex-communists from the east German Party of Democratic Socialism, governing party defectors and the predominantly west German Work and Social Justice party, is upsetting apple carts left, right and centre.

Only a few weeks ago, Angela Merkel’s conservative opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) and their allies seemed assured of an easy victory. But the latest polls show the left party winning up to 60 Bundestag seats, which would make it Germany’s third-largest political force.

And it could deny an outright majority to Ms Merkel while further weakening Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s ruling Social Democrats (SPD).

Mr Scholz accepted his party was unlikely to win. But he pledged there would be no backroom deals to keep the SPD and Greens in power.

“One reason for the left’s support is that voters feel they were wrong to trust Mr Schroder in 1998 after 16 years of Helmut Kohl,” he said. “The Red-Green coalition managed a change of power but not a change of policy ... The ridiculous continuation of neo-liberal policies obviously contributes to today’s opportunity. We will help them correct their policies. But there is no chance of a coalition.”

The left party, jointly led by Mr Schroder’s bitter rival Oskar Lafontaine and the charismatic Gregor Gysi, opposes the government’s labour reforms and benefit cuts. It wants an overhaul of industrial and taxation policy. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service