Left party boss Ernst probed over travel expenses

[Die Neue Zeit]

In other words, why Klaus Ernst is an asshole and shouldn't have been co-chairman:

http://www.thelocal.de/politics/20100722-28665.html


The Berlin state prosecutor has added to the socialist Left party’s woes with the announcement late Wednesday that it is investigating party chairman Klaus Ernst for fraudulently using his travel allowance.

Berlin prosecution office spokesman Martin Stelt said Ernst was being investigated for embezzlement and fraud. He was suspected of abusing his MPs’ travel allowance by claiming expenses on trips to attend union meetings and company boards meetings between 2007 and 2009.

The allowance can be claimed only for activities directly related to being an MP. Stelt told daily Die Welt the investigation had been running for two weeks.

But Ernst told the paper he was not too concerned about the investigation.

“I am confident that I’ve conducted myself appropriately,” he said.

Should the allegations be proven, Ernst would face a fine or prison of up to five years.

The revelation comes hot on the heels of the federal court decision on Wednesday that Germany’s domestic intelligence services could continue keeping tabs on members the Left party.

That decision overturned a ruling by a state court in North Rhine-Westphalia, which had said it was not appropriate for Germany's intelligence agency the Verfassungsschutz to be gathering a file on The Left's Thuringia state party leader Bodo Ramelow.

Domestic intelligence officials consider parts of The Left's agenda go against Germany's constitution, and the ruling by the federal court in Leipzig is a major setback for the far-left party's efforts to stop the government surveillance of its members.

[Widerstand]

I fear I'm repeating myself, but I'm not surprised at all. They are just as shit as shit as every other mainstream party in Germany. Whatever old KPD- or SED-related ideologies their members might have had seem to have been lost a long while ago. Rhetoric is all that survived.

I find it overly ridiculous that they are under surveillance though. I could never understand it. To my understanding, they aren't even trying to be revolutionary outside their Wahlkampf Propaganda. Seems like just an attempt by the old established parties to keep the number of competitors down.

[Ligeia]

I find it overly ridiculous that they are under surveillance though. I could never understand it. To my understanding, they aren't even trying to be revolutionary outside their Wahlkampf Propaganda. Seems like just an attempt by the old established parties to keep the number of competitors down.
I don't think their propaganda is revolutionary. But they are in favor of constructing socialism, ending capitalism. It's in their program, those ideas have to come from somewhere.
There's no doubt that there are unfortunately a lot of members that aren't a bit interested in socialism or anything like that and simple capitalists but there are others,too.
The reason why they are under surveillance is probably to discredit them and hence all of their ideas. If they're discredited, nobody will dare listen to anything they say no matter how reasonable for most people it might be. It's not even about fearing they might get elected, it's just about the ideas, impeding their circulation.

[Widerstand]

I don't think their propaganda is revolutionary.

Yeah, wrong word. What I meant is that they play the "rebel chic"-provocation card too much for my taste, most famous example would be their Reichtum Für Alle poster.



But they are in favor of constructing socialism, ending capitalism. It's in their program, those ideas have to come from somewhere.

But they want to do it by reform, if they really want to do it at all.