From 1991 until 1999 Ernst had been a parliamentary advisor for the state parliamentary group of the
PDS in Saxony and substitute chairman of the PDS in Saxony. She became a Member of the Parliament of Saxony in 1998. In November 2001 Ernst got elected as chairman, as successor of
Peter Porsch. After the merger of
WASG and PDS forming the party DIE LINKE she got elected as chairman of the state association of DIE LINKE in Saxony. In state parliament she was a member of the committee for Home Affairs and a member of the committee for Constitutional, Legal and European Affairs. As local politician she also was a member of the City Council in
Dresden. Since 2009 Ernst is a Member of European Parliament. In her first term she was on the board of the
Confederal Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left, a member of the
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, a substitute on the
Committee on Regional Development and the ''Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality'' and a Member of the Delegation for relations with Iran. After the reelection in 2014 she stayed in the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and became a substitute on the
Committee on Industry, Research and Energy. Additionally to the Iran delegation she became a Member of the Delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. And got elected as the speaker of the German Delegation of
Left party. ==References==