With sharp attacks on the traffic lights, Wagenknecht has prepared her new party for the 2024 election year. At the first party conference of the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, the founder once again called the traffic light “the stupidest government in Europe”.
The party conference of the newly founded Sahra Wagenknecht alliance in Berlin began with a lot of criticism of the federal government and an invitation to all dissatisfied people. Co-chairwoman and namesake Wagenknecht said the policy needs to change. “There’s something going on in our society.”
There are “so many problems, uncertainty, but also indignation and anger,” said Wagenknecht in her speech to the applause of almost 400 delegates. “More and more people in our country have become politically homeless.” The failure of the traffic light policy means that the AfD has reached over 20 percent in surveys and is sometimes the strongest force in some eastern German states.
The success of the AfD, which, according to Wagenknecht, includes Nazis and right-wing extremists, is “not the result of brilliant work by the AfD”, but rather a failure of the traffic light coalition – according to Wagenknecht, the “stupidest government in Europe”. The fact that the federal government’s politicians are now taking to the streets against the right is “hypocrisy.”
Stop arms exports to Ukraine, end the war
At the same time, she criticized the fact that many demonstrations were too quickly portrayed in the right-wing corner in the media. “The promotion of peace – on the right, the defense of farms – on the right, the criticism of school closings and pressure to conform during the Corona period – on the right, the demand for limiting immigration and concerns about Islamist parallel societies – on the right.”
She demanded that the traffic light government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) completely reduce the burden on farmers. In addition, arms exports to Ukraine must be stopped. Wagenknecht said the war in Ukraine could be ended through negotiations and quickly. How exactly, she left open.
Wagenknecht also presented the issue of social inequality as one of the new party’s priorities. The traffic light government offered citizens a mix of tax cuts and tax increases at the beginning of the year. This once again puts a burden on the poor and the lower middle, while those who earn a lot end up with even more money in their wallets. “It should be the other way around. That’s what we’re committed to,” said Wagenknecht.
BSW party leadership elected
In the first part of the party conference, the party leadership was completed by the two chairmen Wagenknecht and the ex-Left parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali. The delegates elected Friederike Benda from Berlin and Amid Rabieh from North Rhine-Westphalia as deputy party leaders. Both were previously active for the Left, Rabieh was deputy NRW state chairman.
The third party vice-president is the economist Shervin Haghsheno. Haghsheno, like the dual leadership of Wagenknecht and Mohamed Ali, was elected at the founding party conference on January 8th. The general secretary of the new party is the Bundestag member Christian Leye, the treasurer is the entrepreneur Ralph Suikat and the federal managing director Lukas Schön. In the afternoon, 14 members were to be elected for the expanded party executive board.
Wagenknecht called on her fellow campaigners to pull together. The party members are very different, said Wagenknecht. These include trade unionists, entrepreneurs, nurses, police officers, theologians, city dwellers and villagers. The party will only be successful if the members see this “difference as an asset, if we not only demand tolerance and respect in society, but also live it here in our party. That must be our mission and that must be our goal.”
Bianca Schwarz, ARD Berlin, tagesschau, January 27, 2024 10:08 a.m
“We are not Left 2.0”
Wagenknecht continued: “We are not a Left 2.0. This must also apply to our dealings with one another. Let us become a party of togetherness and not a party of intrigues and post-trading like everyone else.” Structures should be created in the BSW in which it is not the most ruthless and scheming who prevail, but rather the most talented and best. “Because that’s what we want in society too. Then we start with ourselves. That’s very important, that’s what will set us apart from everyone else if we’re like that.”
Wagenknecht called on the members to treat each other with care – that must be the credo. “We have big plans for our country and for the people who have great expectations of us. We owe it to them to do our job well.”
The European election program will be debated and adopted in the afternoon. The delegates should also choose the candidates for the European elections on June 9th. The former left-wing politician Fabio de Masi and the former SPD mayor of Düsseldorf, Thomas Geisel, are planned as the top candidates.
Criticism of the EU
The draft program is characterized by sharp criticism of the European Union (EU) in its current form. Among other things, the BSW wants more decision-making power for the nation states. The EU technocracy’s “regulatory rage” is also criticized.
Further demands include a significant limitation of migration to Germany, including through asylum procedures at external borders and in third countries. In addition to an end to arms aid to Ukraine, the alliance is calling for oil and gas to be purchased from Russia again. “The war in Ukraine is a bloody proxy war between NATO and Russia.” The war was “started militarily by Russia, but it could have been prevented by the West and could have been ended long ago,” says the draft.
Final words from Lafontaine
Wagenknecht’s husband, the former SPD and left-wing politician Oskar Lafontaine, will give the final speech at the party conference, which is taking place in the former GDR cinema Kosmos in Berlin. The 80-year-old told Deutschlandfunk that the current politics in Germany and especially the traffic light coalition are rejected by many people. The country therefore needs a new political force that the people can trust.
Sahra Wagenknecht founded her party on January 8th with around 40 people and accepted the first 450 members.