Germans abuzz over ‘Red Julia’ Leftist star

Pictures of herself on her shirt stole the show from the NPD on their first day in the Saxony Assembly that landed her on the front pages of 87 German newspapers and won her wide applause.

‘‘We wanted to make a statement that they were not just another party coming in but an anti-democratic party,’’ said Bonk, who became the youngest state parliamentarian in German history, having left school just three months earlier.

The Left party is a month-old merger of the Reform Communist Party of Democratic Socialism, for whom Bonk stood in Saxony, and Left-wing defectors from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD).

It hopes that even though she isn’t standing herself for the national parliament, Bonk will win over young voters, especially in the pivotal eastern battleground, and win back thousands whose protest votes helped the NPD in Saxony last year. ‘‘The far-right has to be tackled head on,’’ she said.

Articulate arguments, abundant confidence and an ability to advocate her party’s policies belie her age and helped make Bonk a regular guest on a number of heavyweight political talk shows. ‘‘It’s right and also important that the Leftist forces in Germany are coming together now,’’ she said. She is studying history and political science at the University of Dresden alongside her full-time state Assembly job. ‘‘It’s an exciting time for the Left in Germany. When two separate worlds come together, there are some areas where not everything matches up the way it should,’’ she said.

Nicknamed ‘‘Red Julia’’ by German tabloids and called ‘‘Socialism’s prettiest face’’ by the communist Neues Deutschland daily, she got swept into one summer storm between the PDS and west German Leftists who fused to make her party.

She was with ex-SPD Chairman Oskar Lafontaine at a rally when he used a loaded term for foreign workers (Fremdarbeiter) that is widely shunned because it was used by the Nazis. Bonk and many others in all parties accused Lafontaine of fishing for far-right voters. He denied this and even apologised to the Left party Congress on Saturday for ‘‘misunderstandings’’.

Bonk has had communication problems herself. Last year she said drugs should be decriminalised, creating an uproar that only abated after her party noted it was part of their platform. ‘‘It’s funny that a lot of people expect politicians to know the answers to everything,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s not the case’’.

—Reuters