The main opposition party in the Germany Federal Parliament Die Linke held a two-day congress in Hannover over the weekend and approved the party program prepared for the general elections on September 24.

Raising social benefits, increasing taxes for the rich, calling back troops on foreign soil and many other issues were included in the election program. Die Linke also included the following clause in the “Domestic Affairs” section: “Viewpoint for intelligence should change and the PKK ban should be lifted.”

German Interior Affairs Ministry had issued a decree on November 26, 1993 to ban all PKK activity in the country. The government of the time led by Kohl issued a 53-page bulletin on the PKK ban, stating that the PKK was banned for foreign interests.

The ban leads to the criminalization of Kurds who live in Germany, and was the subject of a written parliamentary inquiry by Die Linke last May when Angela Merkel’s government stated that the decision to ban the PKK was “made for the domestic security of Germany”.

Die Linke came in third with 8.6% of the vote in the 2013 elections and became the main opposition party when the Christian Democratic Union Parties (CDU-CSU) and Social Democratic Party (SPD) formed a coalition government.

In opinion polls before the September 24 elections, Die Linke is expected to receive 10-11% of the vote.