State elections 2024
How do you deal with a Wagenknecht party? Leading CDU politicians against cooperation
Sahra Wagenknecht was open to working with the CDU
© Kay Nietfeld / DPA
The party of the former left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht has not yet been founded, but possible collaboration is already being discussed. In any case, many people in the CDU reject this – but not everyone.
Wagenknecht had said about possible cooperation with the CDU after the election in Saxony: “If in doubt, that might be better than if (Prime Minister Michael) Kretschmer governs with the AfD.” Former Federal President Joachim Gauck predicted on Thursday evening on the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”: “The new party will win big everywhere in the East.”
“Anti-Americanism, pro-Putin and socialism” as obstacles
CDU party vice-president Andreas Jung told the newspaper “Welt” on Friday that what is currently known about the program for the party project is “light years away from our convictions on central issues.” He mentioned “anti-Americanism, pro-Putin and socialism.” However, the CDU will not make “any premature decisions,” Jung continued.
“If Sahra Wagenknecht founds a party and runs for elections, she will not be able to avoid giving clear answers to challenges – concrete solutions instead of just describing the problem and protesting.” Only then will it be possible to make any predictions about the potential of such a party.
Union parliamentary secretary Thorsten Frei (CDU) told the newspaper: “We have nothing in common with the Wagenknecht party, but the question doesn’t even arise at the moment.” He added: “Before we make an incompatibility decision, the party should first be founded and make it into parliament.”
In front of Wagenknecht and her comrades-in-arms
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CDU state chairmen of Brandenburg and Thuringia do not want to give a direct rejection
CDU treasurer Julia Klöckner told the “Welt”: “The Union has a clear incompatibility decision with regard to the AfD and the Left. This of course also applies to the Wagenknecht party, which merges the positions of the AfD and the Left like a horseshoe.”
The Lower Saxony CDU leader Sebastian Lechner, however, told “Welt” that there was a need for clarification. The new party cannot be subsumed under the CDU’s incompatibility decision with the Left and AfD. “The Wagenknecht party would have to make its own decision.”
On the other hand, the CDU state chairmen of Brandenburg and Thuringia do not want to reject possible alliances from the outset. “The ability to talk among Democrats is important,” Voigt told the “Bild” newspaper. However, he added: “Ms. Wagenknecht has not yet attracted attention for making politics for the bourgeois middle.”
Former Federal President Gauck: Fight the Wagenknecht Party
Redmann told “Bild” that it was clear that there were “extreme differences” between the CDU and the planned new party. The Brandenburg CDU state leader advocated “now we wait for the next developments”.
The former CDU chairman of Thuringia, Mike Mohring, warned his party not to rule out cooperation. “Months ago, the then imaginary Wagenknecht party came straight into first place in a survey for Thuringia,” Mohring told the Berlin “Tagesspiegel” on Friday. “Above all, this shows that people are looking for something new beyond all the parties represented in the state parliament, from left to right.”
Former Federal President Joachim Gauck called for the new alliance to be fought as well as the AfD. This is necessary “to defend our open and liberal society,” Gauck told the Bayern media group. The planned Wagenknecht party combines “selected leftists with national-populist arguments” and will primarily lure away voters from the Social Democrats and the AfD.
CDU leader Merz: “It’s worrying that we will have two populist parties”
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz told the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and the “Stuttgarter Nachrichten” that Wagenknecht might succeed in “taking away a lot of votes from the right-wing extremist AfD.” At the same time, he emphasized: “I find the fact that we will soon have two populist parties very worrying.”
Wagenknecht told “Focus” with regard to the name of the new party: “In the future, it must be a name that appeals to our broad spectrum of potential voters.” She added: “Labels like ‘left’ will not appear in it because many people today associate them with completely different content.”
Wagenknecht announced last Monday that he would found a new party in January. Together with nine other MPs, she has already announced that she is leaving the Left Party. However, the breakaways do not want to give back their Bundestag mandates, and they also want to continue to belong to the Left faction for the time being.