What is The Left (Germany)?
{{Infobox political party | country = Germany | name = The Left | native_name = Die Linke | logo = Logo Die Linke (2023).svg | colorcode = {{party color|The Left (Germany)}} | leader = {{Nowrap|[[Jan van Aken]] <br> [[Ines Schwerdtner]]}} | foundation = 16 June 2007 | ideology = [[Democratic socialism]] | international = None | position = [[Left-wing politics|Left-wing]] | european = [[Party of the European Left]] | europarl = [[European United Left – Nordic Green Left|GUE/NGL]] | colours = [[Red]] and [[purple]] | headquarters = Karl-Liebknecht-Haus<br />Kl. Alexanderstraße 28<br />D-10178 [[Berlin]] | website = [http://www.die-linke.de www.die-linke.de] }} '''The Left''' ({{lang-de|'''Die Linke'''}}), sometimes called the '''Left Party''' ({{lang-de|die Linkspartei}}), is a [[political party]] in [[Germany]]. It is a [[Democratic socialism|democratic socialist]] political party in Germany. It is considered to be [[left-wing]] [[Populism|populist]] by some researchers. The party is the direct descendant of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). It was formed on 16 June 2007, when [[The Left Party.PDS]] joined with [[WASG]] to form a unified party. The Left is a founding member of the Party of the European Left. It is also the largest party in the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) group in the European Parliament. According to official party figures, the Left Party had 60,350 registered members as of December 2020. It is the fifth-largest party in Germany. The party participates in governments in many states including [[Brandenburg]], [[Thuringia]], and [[Berlin]]. The Left parliamentarian [[Bodo Ramelow]] is the Minister-President of Thuringia. While the PDS was considered by German authorities as extremist, the WASG was not considered extremist.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.verfassungsschutz.de/de/publikationen/verfassungsschutzbericht/vsbericht_2008/ |title=Verfassungsschutzbericht 2008 p. 6 |access-date=2011-01-20 |archive-date=2010-12-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.