The third unknown is the performance of the Left Party, a new formation positioned to the left of the SPD and built on East Germany’s ex-communist PDS, with the addition of a significant number of dissident Social Democrats in the West who proclaim themselves to be defenders of the welfare state.
第三个未知数是定位于和社会民主党相左的新政党，左翼党的表现。该党脱胎于东德前共产主义性质的，民主社会主义党（PDS），后又吸纳了为数众多的，自称为福利国家捍卫者的西德社会民主党中的持不同政见者。