«In Brussels I will be like a watchdog»- Corriere.it

Carola Rackete, 35, will be the leading candidate of the Linke (the German left) in the next European elections. Rackete had become internationally known when she, in command of the lifeboat Sea-Watch 3,
in June 2019 she decided to force the closure of the port of Lampedusa and was arrested on charges of resisting a warship and attempted shipwreck:
it had 42 migrants on board, after 17 days at sea. Those were days of very high tension with the Italian government, in particular with the then Interior Minister Matteo Salvini.

Linke, which is facing a crisis of consensus, has now chosen to focus on Rackete to try to redeem itself. Next year, the former commander will run for Brussels together with the co-leader of the party Martin Schirdewan, a former MEP. Rackete said on Twitter that he did not take the decision lightly and said he saw his candidacy as an opportunity for a new partnership between social movements and Linke.

A mandate in the European Parliament serves the climate movements to be a kind of watchdog in Brussels. It is a question of communicating the contents of the movements and of making the movements themselves aware of what is being decided in Brussels, Rackete said in an interview with spiegel.

The left-wing formation has just gathered enough support to remain represented in the German parliament in the last national elections in 2021. According to polls, the consensus in favor of the Linke would be around 4-5%. But the image was further weakened by a bitter public rift between the leadership and one of its best-known figures, Sahra Wagenknecht, who he prefers a more restrictive approach precisely on migrants.

The Political Diary newsletter

If you want to stay updated on political news, subscribe to the newsletter “Political Diary”. It is dedicated to Corriere della Sera subscribers and arrives twice a week at 12. Just click here.