Overview

• Five Berlin parliament members, including Klaus Lederer and Elke Breitenbach, will stay in the Left Party's caucus after resigning from the party.
• The resignations followed a contentious debate on antisemitism at the Left Party's Berlin state conference in October.
• The party's state board had urged the five members to relinquish their parliamentary mandates, which they refused.
• Caucus leaders Anne Helm and Tobias Schulze acknowledged the members' commitment to work based on the party's election platform.
• National party leaders Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken supported keeping the members in the caucus to avoid further internal conflict.