Sahra Wagenknecht, upon arrival at the press conference where she presented the BSW party with the initials of her name this Monday in Berlin.FILIP SINGER (EFE)
The political landscape in Germany is growing. A new formation with the potential to obtain more than 10% of the vote was launched this Monday by one of the icons of the German left, Sahra Wagenknecht. The charismatic former leader of the post-communists of Die Linke has just founded another party with more than obvious personalism: it is called BSW – Reason and Justice. The acronym corresponds to the Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance in German. She herself will be the chairwoman together with Amira Mohamed Ali, who also left Die Linke three months ago to join the new project.
The aim of the formation is to capitalize on the protest vote, which is increasing every month due to dissatisfaction with Olaf Scholz's coalition government. The trio of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals is losing its footing with every new poll released and remains mired in a severe budget crisis that has worsened citizens' perceptions of the economy's progress. Analysts expect the BSW to steal some of its vote from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party that has so far benefited from dissatisfaction with the executive.
Wagenknecht announced his departure from the Left last October. She took nine other party MPs with her, which resulted in the Left Party losing its parliamentary group and plunging that party into an even deeper crisis. In the last elections (September 2021), Die Linke was already on the verge of being excluded from the plenary hall because it did not reach 5% of the vote. Initially founded as an association with the aim of collecting donations in order to finance itself, it was finally officially founded as a party this Monday. According to its treasurer, millionaire businessman Ralph Suikat, one of the team's star signings, the team has raised €1.4 million in that time, mostly from small donations.
The new party will debut in the European elections on June 9, in which Wagenknecht will not run, as was confirmed at a busy press conference in Berlin this Monday. He will be replaced by the former left-wing MP Fabio de Masi and the veteran SPD politician and former mayor of Düsseldorf Thomas Geisel. Wagenknecht will also not lead the lists in the three regional elections that will be the focus of Germany's political news this fall. Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia, three eastern states where populist speeches are well received, will elect new parliaments. The right-wing extremist AfD emerged as the winner in all surveys.
Take advantage of the disillusionment
Wagenknecht wants to exploit Germans' disillusionment with the increase in irregular immigration and the economic crisis, the fishing ground in which the AfD has been fishing with great success for a year. The Ultra formation is full of energy after its successes in the elections in Bavaria and Hesse last October, where it achieved its best historical result. According to polls, if Germans went to the polls now, the AfD would reach around 22% and would be comfortably in second place at the federal level, behind only the Christian Democrats of the CDU.
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The new party of the eternal rebel Die Linke now wants to win back the left-wing votes that have migrated to the populism of the AfD. It is no coincidence that the word “left” does not appear in the party’s name. The aim is to address as broad a spectrum as possible: from traditional left-wing values such as defending workers and redistributing wealth to more restrictive immigration policies, including rejection of Woke – the term adopted by the American Right to Criticize Climate Policy , equality policy, etc. – or criticism of German military aid to Ukraine and the demand for an end to sanctions against Russia.
Many of Wagenknecht's proposed solutions are unworkable, starting with the return of the Russian gas that has contributed so much to the strength of German industry, but they have a clear impact on the electorate. The party does not yet have a program – its first formal meeting as a party is on January 27th – nor does it have any regional associations; Just five pages of political manifesto that he presented in October, with such vague headings as “economic reason,” “social justice,” “peace,” or “freedom.” Nevertheless, the potential is enormous, as the Germany trend survey from last November shows. When asked “Do you think a new party led by Sahra Wagenknecht would be good for Germany?” 36% answered yes.
Politicians are aware of this potential and will address dissatisfaction with “the worst government in the history of the Federal Republic,” which they accused on Monday of “incompetence and arrogance.” Citizens, he said in October, “are worried and don't know who to vote for.” Many of them voted far-right “out of anger or desperation,” he added. Looking at the eastern states of the former GDR – where there is no contradiction in offering social proposals with a conservative mentality in other matters – and without left or right labels, the new party will undoubtedly bring about changes in the German political landscape.
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