Berlin, Germany – In the weeks leading up to the German election, Friedrich Merz, the man tipped to become chancellor, broke a longstanding, cross-party firewall that blocked cooperation with the far-right, anti-immigrant party, the Alternative For Deutschland (AfD), to push through tougher migration legislation.
Political pressure had been piling after two deadly attacks within a matter of weeks, reportedly carried out by men who had sought asylum in the country.
While the legislation was ultimately blocked, the move prompted condemnation from across the political spectrum, including from former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who, like Merz, belongs to the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
In an impassioned speech in the Bundestag, the German Parliament, a visibly outraged Heidi Reichinnek, co-governor of the Left party known as Die Linke, lambasted Merz directly for working “deliberately’’ with “rightwing extremists”.
“All this happened only two days after we commemorated the liberation of Auschwitz, two days after commemorating the murdered and tormented. Now you’re collaborating with those who carry on this same ideology,” she said.
The speech went viral, with more than seven million views on TikTok, and pushed Reichinnek to the top of national news agendas. Coverage focused on the fallout, but also the social media presence and style of the self-described socialist, feminist and anti-fascist who is adorned with tattoos – including an inking of the German Marxist Rosa Luxemburg.
As the election drew closer, Reichinnek doubled down on her progressive push, meeting with a prominent queer influencer, posting regularly to her hundreds of thousands of social media followers, criticising Merz further, and speaking out about housing costs and the AfD.
The strategy paid off.
In the February 23 election, Die Linke polled at 9 percent, more than doubling its voter share from the last election in 2021, with a reported quarter of young people backing it. It was the highest figure for any party among this demographic.
Speaking to Al Jazeera following the result, Reichinnek, who shares the leadership with Soren Pellmann, said it was an incredible achievement not just for Die Linke, but for everyone who stood up for “social justice, solidarity, and democracy”.
“The fact that so many people have joined the party, that hundreds of thousands took to the streets to defend human rights, and that we were able to reach so many new voters shows that there is real momentum for progressive politics in Germany.
“But this is just the beginning. Elections are important, but they are not the end goal – they are a step in a much bigger fight. The cost of living crisis isn’t over, social inequality is still growing, and the far right is still a threat. That’s why we will continue to be a loud and uncompromising voice in parliament and on the streets,” said Reichinnek.
Commentators are crediting the 36-year-old for playing an integral role in Die Linke’s electoral resurgence following internal struggles. In 2023, one of its high-profile leaders, Sahra Wagenknecht, quit and in 2024, low polling figures in the European and regional elections had many writing off the party.
“It was astonishing to see this rise of Die Linke, which seemed doomed to death last year,” Stefan Marschall, a political scientist at the Heinrich Heine University in Duesseldorf told Al Jazeera. “What happened, especially during the last mile of the campaign, was that Die Linke was able to mobilise a lot of young people. And Reichinnek’s role was important, her communication strategy was very clear and addressed certain issues, such as the high housing costs and the resurgence of the far-right, which many young people are concerned about.”
“Up until now, the AfD had been unchallenged on social media,” said Moheb Shafaqyar, a Die Linke member in Berlin. The district he is active in, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, upended the Green party seat, a high-profile left-wing result nationally. “While in Germany and globally there is a frightening trend of young people voting for the right, in this election we have seen a trend reversal.”
East German roots
Born in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt in 1988, a year before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Reichinnek was interested in politics and a fair society from her teenage years.
“At the top of the list of things that frustrated me are the Hartz IV laws (unemployment reforms), which I want to abolish,” she said in a 2022 interview. “Equality for women is just as important to me as effective and better child and youth welfare and basic child benefits that support poor families.”
Between 2007 and 2011, she studied Middle Eastern Studies and Political Science at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg. During this period, she spent time in Cairo as the so-called Arab Spring broke out.
“I was amazed at what people can achieve when they stand together,” she said of Egyptian protesters.
She engaged in further academic pursuits, including as a research assistant on a project looking at transformation in Arab societies, and periods working in the social sector, including teaching German to refugees, before she joined Die Linke in 2015. She became a member of the Left faction in Osnabrueck in northwest Germany a year later. Here she took on roles such as spokesperson for a self-described socialist, feminist, anti-fascist and ecological grassroots initiative.
She rose through the party ranks. At the state party conference in Lower Saxony in 2019, she received the support of more than 86 percent of delegates, making her the party’s youngest state chairwoman. Two years later, she was elected to the Bundestag on the Lower Saxony state list, working on issues such as pensions and youth, women’s and family policy ever since.
“An East German background is still an exception in Germany’s political sphere,” said the political scientist, Marschall. “Her background in an East German working-class household also highlights that she did not enter politics from a position of privilege, making her engagement with social policy issues significantly more authentic.”
The timing of her ascent as Die Linke faced internal strife also helped her trajectory. A bad result in the 2021 federal election followed by disagreements over its position on immigration and later Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine contributed to the departure of Wagenknecht and a cohort of colleagues, who formed a new party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) last year.
Oezguer Oezvatan is the head and co-founder of the diversity and inclusion agency Transformakers, and the author of Jede Stimme Zaehlt (Every Vote Counts, 2025) based in Berlin. He said during this difficult time for the party, opportunities emerged.
“Wagenknecht was against immigration and after she left, there was a chance for the progressive and pro-immigration voices within the party to become bigger and move the party towards more liberal immigration policies.”
The other factor, Oezvatan said, was the Israel-Palestine conflict, which led to further departures.
“There was another window of opportunity for human rights activists to make it a more pro-Palestinian and Israel-critical party. To the general public, this made Die Linke look more progressive and human rights-oriented.”
Reichinnek was active on social issues and engaging with the electorate on- and offline.
“She is an authentic voice for social policy because of her work so far in the field,” Oezvatan said, “plus she was already seen as a social media star before the election campaign period, and this undermined the position that politicians only go on TikTok because it’s an election campaign.”
“She gets close to people, and she seems to be very honest and very frank in the way she talks, which we saw in the speech to Merz,” added Marschall. “And that’s very attractive to people who are used to older, more controlled and unemotional political figures.”
It’s a style that has resonated with Die Linke voters such as Lina Mueller*, a 34-year-old counsellor in a pregnancy advice centre, who requested Al Jazeera to use a pseudonym due to the sensitive nature of her work.
“Reichinnek stands for a younger generation of the party while at the same time continues to fight older Left battles around social justice and anti-abortion legislation. She doesn’t use strategies to get more votes from AfD voters in the way that Wagenknecht does. While they both seem like populists, Reichinnek comes across as very convincing.”
As the post-election dust settles and Germany contends with a recession-facing economy and a re-energised far-right, Reichinnek’s party has “a lot of energy at the moment, and she’s one of the batteries”, Marschall said.
According to party member Shafaqyar in Berlin, the party line has an invigorating sense of clarity.
“Reichinnek is concerned about the issues, not personal vanity and power for the sake of power. I hope it stays that way.”