Heidi Reichinnek built a loyal following with rapid-fire, acid-tongued takedowns of conservatives and Germany’s political establishment, a star status that helped bring her political party, the far-left Die Linke, back into Parliament earlier this year.
Not everyone was a fan.
In viral social media posts and widely viewed speeches in Parliament, Ms. Reichinnek, a leader of Die Linke, angered the conservative Christian Democrats of Chancellor Friedrich Merz. So much so that they led an effort this week to block her from taking a seat on a prestigious and sensitive committee in Parliament that oversees intelligence agencies.
Conservatives also successfully mustered the votes to block two members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, from taking seats on the committee, which is usually staffed with lawmakers from both the government and the opposition.
The AfD has been recently classified as “extremist” by domestic intelligence that the committee oversees. Die Linke has not.
The rejection of Ms. Reichinnek showed the degree to which social media — and its discontents — is increasingly shaping German politics. Conservative party leaders had cited Ms. Reichinnek’s critiques of them, which have come at times in wildly popular TikTok videos, as reason to bar her from the committee.
But the vote also underscored the difficulties facing Germany’s governing coalition, which includes center-right and center-left parties, as the nation’s political momentum flows toward the extremes, whether right or left.
Mr. Merz’s party, the Christian Democratic Union, is in a governing coalition with the Christian Social Union, its Bavarian sister party, and the center-left Social Democrats. Together, they have enough votes to pass bills that require a simple majority.
But they do not have enough to pass measures that require a supermajority, like the selection of Supreme Court judges or the loosening of Constitutional limits on government borrowing and spending. To do that, they would need help. To this point they have refused to work with the AfD. That means they would need votes from the Greens and Die Linke.
Leaders of Die Linke said that the decision to bar Ms. Reichinnek now made their cooperation less likely.
“It is questionable how the Union intends to secure two-thirds majorities without Die Linke in the future,” Sören Pellmann, who together with Ms. Reichinnek runs Die Linke’s parliamentary group, said in a statement to journalists after the vote on Thursday, referring to Mr. Merz’ party.
“With today’s decision they have denied part of the democratic opposition its important and rightful place on the supervisory board,” he added.
In the past, members of both the far-left and far-right parties have been part of the intelligence committee, which is informed about findings by government intelligence agencies that are deemed too sensitive for the public or even most lawmakers.
This term there will be only one opposition lawmaker on the committee, the Green party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz. There is only one woman, Sonja Eichwede, a Social Democrat.
Ms. Reichinnek would have added to both ranks. But Alexander Hoffmann, who leads the parliamentary group for the Christian Social Union, told the German news outlet Spiegel that past comments criticizing Mr. Merz and his party effectively disqualified her.
“This highly sensitive body needs suitable people, not party political provocation,” Mr. Hoffmann said.
On TikTok, where Ms. Reichinnek has nearly 620,000 followers, and in Parliament, she has routinely disparaged Mr. Merz and his party. She railed against Mr. Merz for his decision in January to vote with the AfD to try to pass a series of tough-on-immigration measures.
Ms. Reichinnek has since called Mr. Merz’s new cabinet “worn-out managers and lobbyists” and has called the governing coalition a “coalition of ignorance.”
And while in rejecting her, the Christian conservatives have focused on Ms. Reichinnek personally, she has sought to make the issue about keeping access to sensitive intelligence for her left-wing party.
“All I can say is that the Union seems to be terrified of real democratic control” of the committee, she told journalists after Thursday’s vote.
Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society and culture in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Jim Tankersley is the Berlin bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
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