In public appearances, Bundestag member Wagenknecht primarily attacks the Greens. But others probably have to fear their future party.
Sahra Wagenknecht’s party has made headlines even though it doesn’t even exist yet. The “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” (BSW), which she went public with last week, is simply an association that is intended to promote the founding of the party. Nevertheless, pollsters calculate approval ratings for Wagenknecht of 15 percent or more. This could pose a threat to the other parties.
People at party headquarters are still puzzling over what exactly Wagenknecht will write in their party program. The BSW’s five-page paper is still quite vague overall; the keywords at the opening press conference remained “flowery,” says SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert with demonstrative calm. He sees competition as stimulating business. He wants to wait and see how the new party positions itself politically. Then we’ll see further.
Redistribution and skepticism against minorities
In fact, Sahra Wagenknecht’s opinions and arguments have long been known – from talk shows, books and from all the appearances in the media and in front of well-filled halls. The political scientist Uwe Jun from the University of Trier summarizes what Wagenknecht represents in this formula: for redistribution – but skeptical about migration, climate protection and cultural minorities.
With this mix, Wagenknecht is making a content offering that doesn’t exist yet. According to Jun, the parties are affected very differently. Although the Greens are Wagenknecht’s favorite opponents and supposedly “the most dangerous party in Germany”, they hardly have to fear them as competition. Wagenknecht’s polemics against eco-activism and gender issues are miles away from what Green Party supporters think.
The CDU/CSU and FDP hardly have to fear Wagenknecht as competition. Although Wagenknecht talks a lot about the middle class and about preserving the industrial location, her ideas about redistribution and expropriation by large corporations are unlikely to fall into the bourgeois spectrum. In contrast, Wagenknecht specifically targets supporters of the SPD, the AfD and non-voters.
Wagenknecht and the principle of apocalypse
SPD General Secretary Kühnert sees a fundamental difference between his party’s political approach and the new competing project: “Ms. Wagenknecht is driven by the ‘principle against’. This is the constant in all of her political developments that she has made over the last three years “It has always been against things. Social Democracy is a pro-party, we want to take political responsibility, we are prepared to face contradictions and endure them.” Even in the current government coalition, says Kühnert.
Wagenknecht’s new project with its “apocalypse principle,” as Kühnert calls it, hasn’t been particularly well received by the social democrats at the grassroots level: He’s specifically keeping an eye on whether more people are leaving or whether there are corresponding letters, but: nothing of the sort .
End of paralyzing Self-employment
Tobias Bank, the federal managing director of the Left, reports that there is currently no bloodletting to complain about from the Left. On the contrary: significantly more entries than exits since Wagenknecht officially went his own way. Perhaps most of Wagenknecht’s supporters have already left after the prominent figure was no longer able to achieve majorities within the party.
In the local clubs that Bank regularly visits, he experiences one thing above all: “The relief of many members that the paralyzing self-employment, which Sahra Wagenknecht is responsible for, is now finally coming to an end.” Bank argues that when the project was presented, it was seen that Wagenknecht was more interested in other groups of voters. “If she sits on a podium with a millionaire and an economist and solicits corporate donations, then in his opinion that has nothing to do with a left-wing party.”
Wagenknecht herself said that she did not want to compete with her former political home, but that could also have been an attempt to appease her. Finally, she and her supporters have requested to remain in the Bundestag parliamentary group of the Left for the time being.
division of the critical of the government warehouse
Instead, Wagenknecht targets non-voters. She repeatedly talks about a representation gap because so many people no longer vote. And she wants to think about the protest potential in the AfD: “So that all the people who are also out of anger, out of desperation, but not because they are right-wing, can now think about voting for the AfD or have already done so – so that these people have one have a reputable address.”
Perhaps because of this declaration of war, the AfD is rather buttoned up. An attempt to silence the political opponent. At the request of ARD capital studios The party’s press office is unable to offer an interview with the party leadership. So far, party leader Alice Weidel has occasionally shown sympathy for Wagenknecht. But she also said in the summer: “That any split in the anti-government camp should deter the AfD from participating in the government.”
All parties only agree on one point: first wait and see what exactly Wagenknecht and her supporters want politically. Only then do you know how dangerous it can really be.