For Germany's Former Communists, a Stunning Resurgence

"The Social Democrats are performing very badly at the moment," said Gero Neugebauer, a political science professor at Berlin's Free University. "The public mood in Germany is bad. People believe they will not benefit from globalization, but will suffer instead. They think they'll lose their jobs," he added, even though the number of unemployed Germans has shrunk by more than one-fifth since 2005.

Although the Social Democrats have pledged never to form an alliance with the Left on the national level -- a reflection of how the communist label still repels most Germans, especially in the western part of the country -- analysts aren't convinced.

"In the long run, it's inevitable for the Social Democrats to ally themselves with the Left," Neugebauer said. "They can't avoid it."

The Left calls for a full restoration of welfare benefits that have been cut in recent years, a shorter workweek, a minimum national wage and a "wealth tax" on the personal assets of rich people. The party calls itself an alternative to "unbridled capitalism" and doesn't apologize for its communist past, though it does condemn the Stalin years as "a criminal abuse of socialism," according to a platform adopted by Left leaders last year.

On foreign policy, the Left calls for closer ties with Cuba and Venezuela and has harsh words for the "imperialist" United States.

Its critics warn that if it came to power, the Left would soak the rich with higher taxes and withdraw Germany's military from international commitments, including peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Africa.

Andreas Schockenhoff, a deputy parliamentary leader for the Christian Democrats, accused the Left of having no real plan for governing. He said Germany's other parties have a responsibility to treat the Left as an outcast, the same way they shun neo-Nazi groups that occasionally win seats in state legislatures.

"They are playing a role of obstruction and protestation," Schockenhoff said of the Left in an interview. "It is a populist approach, very demagogic. They want to blame any political change in our system on globalization and are outside the democratic consensus that we had until now."

Also dogging the Left are persistent allegations and evidence that some of its leaders were friendly with the Stasi, the dreaded East German secret police.

The suspicions arose again last month when a freshly elected Left member of Parliament in the state of Lower Saxony told a television station that the Stasi had done a good job guarding against "reactionary forces." The legislator, Christel Wegner, also made the dubious claim that the Berlin Wall was meant to keep Westerners out of East Germany, instead of vice versa. She was forced to quit a few days later.

Bartsch, the party's general secretary, said the Left needed to lay such doubts to rest.

"We have to be a serious party," he said. "We are committed to acting in a democratic way. For us, change in society is only possible through democracy -- no ifs, ands or buts."

Special correspondent Shannon Smiley contributed to this report.