Die Linke top candidate Janine Wissler expressed disappointment over the election results calling it a ‘harsh blow’ for the left-wing party, at a press conference on Monday in Berlin.

“We have to analyse in the next few days and weeks and we have to draw conclusions and lessons from this debacle - we really have to call it that,” she said.

Co-leader of the party Susanne Hennig-Wellsow emphasised the importance of focusing on the German states where the party can get into a governing coalition. “Since we suffered a blatant defeat, it is now all the more important that we try to be part of a state government in the states of Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as much as possible.”

In Berlin, the party roughly matched its 2016 result. Berlin candidate Klaus Lederer expressed the wish to continue a coalition with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens.

Despite the setbacks, he was enthusiastic about the positive vote in the 'Expropriate Deutsche Wohnen & Co.' referendum. “I can only say that now every government - no matter which one in this city - has to deal with this result in such a way that a corresponding bulletproof socialisation law is passed by the parliament,” he said.

For the German Bundestag, the election results leave Die Linke in a clear position of the opposition, as parliamentary co-leader of the party, and 2021 co-lead candidate, Dietmar Bartsch pointed out.

The left narrowly broke the five percent hurdle in the federal election on Sunday with 4.9 percent, but will still be represented with 39 members in the parliament due to winning three direct mandates.