The leader of Germany’s left-wing Die Linke party, Heidi Reichinnek, has been accused of double standards after she was caught getting out of an Audi A8 limousine – whose listed price exceeds €100,000.
The licence plate of the car showed Reichinnek’s initials HR and the numbers 419, corresponding to her birthday on April 19, which fuelled speculation that the limousine was her personal car.
Darf ich vorstellen:
Heidi Reichinnek, geboren am 19.04.88, hier zu sehen in Ihrem klimafreundlichen, äußerst günstigen Audi A8 5.0 TDI, vielleicht auf ihrem Weg zum antikapitalistischen Klassenkampf.
Ich gehe auch davon aus, dass das ihr Privatwagen ist, die Autos des… pic.twitter.com/qJl2Is8bYD![]()
— Michael 🇩🇪 (@Bundeskanz50246) February 13, 2026
A spokeswoman for Die Linke said on February 17 the party had leased the Audi for Reichinnek and others.
The spokeswoman added that the party leader generally preferred to use public transport but lately the tense security situation due to repeated campaigns by the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD) had made it necessary for her to use the chauffeured limousine more often.
Reichinnek and her party – who present themselves as anti-capitalist and advocates of the disadvantaged – are now accused of moral double standards by political opponents.
In his traditional Ash Wednesday speech on February 18, Markus Söder, state Prime Minister of Bavaria, railed against Reichinnek and her choice of car: “The socialist TikTok girl, that poor man’s Rosa Luxemburg … now I have seen she is driving an Audi. I understand that. But for matters of believability she should rather drive a Trabant or a Lada instead of abusing Bavarian products.”
Die Linke is the legal successor to the former east German Communist Party SED. Trabant and Lada were two brands of non-luxurious cars manufactured in the former Communist eastern bloc.
Beatrix von Storch, an MP and Deputy Parliamentary Leader of the AfD, wrote on X that the expensive car showed the “double standards” of the entire left-wing party: “If you are against capitalism, you should drive a Trabant and not an Audi. If you want to shoot the rich, you should not buy or lease a car for €100,000.”
Von Storch also accused Reichinnek of using her parliamentary service car to attend an election rally – which she claimed would be illegal.
The video showing Reichinnek in front of the Audi limousine was taken in Koblenz in the state of Rhineland, which is set to elect a new state parliament in March 2026.
