Version of a cable, found at Steinberg Recherche. Some damage is possible, even likely. Authenticity is uncertain. There does exist a cable on this topic - Der Spiegel mentions it but did not give the text. See also Welt Online.

(Now that all cables have been released, we can check and see that the text is faithful.)

25. November 2009
11/25/2009 PP RUEHDBU RUEHFL 
RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHNP RUEHROV RUEHSL
RUEHSRDE RUEHRL #1504 3291303ZNY CCCCC ZZHP 251303Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5900
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, AF, GM
C o n f i d e n t i a l berlin 001504

Sipdis

E.o. 12958: decl: 11/24/2019
Tags: pgov, prel, af, gm 
Subject: gregor gysi  - pied piper of the left
Classified By: Ambassador Philip D. Murphy  
for reasons 1.4 (b/d).

25. November 2009

1. (C) Summary: Left Party Caucus Chief Gregor Gysi told the
Ambassador during a November 23 meeting that he alone was
responsible for building The Left as a national force. He is
aiming for The Left to enter all state parliaments by 2013,
after specifically targeting North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in
2011 and Bavaria in 2013. By that time he also hoped The Left
would gain the Minister-President position in Saxony-Anhalt.
That said, Gysi admitted that the western and eastern
divisions of The Left were oil and water -- only combinable
due to Gysi's alchemy.

Gysi praised President Obama's election as the event of the
century. He said his party differed with the United States on
only one issue - Afghanistan - and military force could not
prevail. He suggested that his party's call for the
dissolution of NATO was needed in order to derail a more
radical party effort to call for German withdrawal from NATO.

Gysi said he would be traveling in February to Cuba (and "old
friend" Fidel Castro), Honduras, Nicaragua (and "friend"
Ortega), Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Columbia (one
"rightist" country). Gysi said he and Lafontaine agreed that
Gysi would run the party's "foreign policy." End Summary.

2. (C) Gysi recalled that the eastern German Party of
Democratic Socialism (PDS), which had been largely the former
East German communist apparatus, combined with western German
radical groups several years back to build "The Left." It had
not been easy. He recalled his own biography, saying the PDS
was created to represent Eastern German interests.

He said that Easterners were represented in all state
parliaments, and were now interested in running governments.
However, in the western states the rabble-rousers making up
The Left had never been elected to anything.

He recalled the Essen party convention this year where all The
Left groups bickered and fought during the entire convention,
the result being plunging polls in the subsequent European
Parliament elections. However, when the party later came to
Berlin for a convention, Gysi took over and taught the party
the errors of its previous (fighting) ways. The result was
unanimity. Gysi said this unanimity was his greatest
achievement leading to the September election successes.

3. (C) With a national party, Gysi said he now had the
attention of other parties in the Bundestag. Previously,
everyone had written off the PDS as regional and irrelevant.
Now, he could speak authoritatively. He said that The Left had
received 8.3 percent of the votes in the western German states
due to the fact that the Social Democratic Party (SPD) had
surrendered its "left alternative" ways in order to mimic the
conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). This had been a
fortuitous opening that The Left had exploited.

4. (C) Asked about differences with the United States, Gysi
said the only real issue was Afghanistan. He asserted that the
military would never win in Afghanistan, and argued that
openness and engagement were the only tools that would work.
He reviewed former West German tactics since the end of WWII
in opening up the GDR as an example. Gysi did not point out
differences over NATO policy (The Left is calling for
dissolution of NATO in favor of a broader -- as proposed by
Russia -- security community) but tried to suggest the Party's
call for dissolution of NATO was a way to avoid the more
dangerous path of pulling Germany out of NATO. He explained
that the United States, France and UK would have to agree to
dissolve NATO, and that was unrealistic. Gysi tried to
criticize U.S. policy on Cuba, claiming isolating enemies did
not work. However, he backed off at the mention of President
Obama's new efforts with Cuba.

5. (C) Regarding the condition of The Left Party Chairman
Oskar Lafontaine since his November 19 operation for cancer,
Gysi said that he speaks to Lafontaine daily and that he
expects Lafontaine to return to work. Gysi said he planned to
visit Central and South America in February and the United
States in July. He hoped to visit New York, San Francisco and
L.A. He noted that the uncle of his wife currently resided in
Chicago. Gysi had been to Chicago previously. He said he had
no plans to visit Russia since things there were too
"uncertain" at present.

6. (C) Comment: Gysi was gregarious and chatty. He welcomed
the possibility of meeting with embassy representatives to
discuss issues such as Afghanistan or NATO.

He repeatedly stressed how impressed he was with President
Obama, and wished he could meet him someday.

This was the first time we can recall an ambassador meeting
with Gysi, who is easily one of Germany's most renowned talk
show participants and parliamentary icons. His rhetorical
flourishes and sly intellect are evident from the start. He
speaks little more than bits and pieces of English.

Murphy