On Monday, ex-left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht presented her new party. A fellow campaigner who is crucial to their project was not there.
For Sahra Wagenknecht he is the most important man in her life – apart from her husband Oskar Lafontaine: Klaus Ernst. Ernst wasn’t even on the podium when Wagenknecht presented her new party in Berlin on Monday afternoon.
Nevertheless, the former union official and left-wing leader plays a key role in the “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – Reason and Justice” (BSW for short). The 69-year-old Ernst has already successfully (co-)founded a party twice. The BSW is his third attempt.
Almost exactly 20 years ago, on March 12, 2004, the trained electrical mechanic and graduate economist started the “Work and Social Justice Initiative” with a group of friends, from which WASG later emerged. Shortly afterwards he was expelled from the SPD. In 2007 he accompanied the merger of WASG and PDS to form the Left Party.
This is how Sahra Wagenknecht wants to protect herself from unwanted members
Ernst has been preparing the new party project with other misfit riders for months. He is said to have been the one who urged Wagenknecht to take the risk.
On Monday morning, Ernst was one of 44 founding members of the Wagenknecht party in the “Oderberg” hotel in the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg. At lunchtime, seven of them answered questions from the capital’s press for over an hour and a half, including the new party leader Sahra Wagenknecht and her co-chair Amira Mohamed Ali as well as the new general secretary Christian Leye, the cum-ex-reconnaissance Fabio De Masi and the ex-mayor of Düsseldorf Thomas Geisel. The latter two are expected to become BSW’s top candidates in the European elections at the beginning of June.
Striking: With the exception of economist Shervin Haghsheno, who was also present and was elected deputy party chairman and, in his own words, is new to politics, all of them are close Wagenknecht confidants. Both De Masi and Leye used to be her employees before they became members of the Bundestag themselves.
A direct switch from the AfD to the BSW is not possible
An initial batch of 450 additional members is expected to be accepted by Tuesday evening. After that, the aim is to “grow in a controlled and slow manner,” as Wagenknecht emphasized: Anyone who wants to join the party can first register as a supporter. Before he or she becomes a full member, people first want to “get to know” him or her, says Wagenknecht: “We have to make sure they aren’t the wrong people.” She ruled out a direct switch from previous AfD members to the BSW.
This is to avoid bringing troublemakers into the party. Or people who try to infiltrate them with a different agenda. Wagenknecht clearly tries to maintain as much control as possible over a project that is associated with their name.
New name for Wagenknecht party only after the federal election
In Berlin, Wagenknecht explained why she decided to name the party after herself because of its recognizability. It starts with being “at the bottom of the list” in elections. The party should be renamed after the federal election at the latest. Ultimately, this should “continue to exist completely independently of me,” says Wagenknecht.
The program does not contain “that much that is surprising,” as Wagenknecht himself admitted. It is based on the founding call for the association, which listed many commonplaces: against market monopolies, for more investment in education, a tax system that relieves the burden on low earners and a new “policy of détente” instead of military aid for Ukraine. When it comes to climate protection, Wagenknecht calls for better municipal heat planning and an abolition of Robert Habeck’s heating law, and when it comes to migration, a reduction in numbers through testing procedures at the EU’s external borders.
But much is still fragmented, interspersed with populist sounds. For example, when Wagenknecht claims that the recognition rate for refugees is less than one percent and ignores the fact that with subsidiary protection and the ban on deportation in 2023 it was almost 52 percent.
Experts should develop BSW party program
A detailed program from the BSW is to be developed by “expert committees” in the coming weeks. The first major milestone is the European elections. The list for this is to be voted on at the first BSW party conference on January 27th in the former Berlin cinema “Kosmos”. Wagenknecht announced that there will be some prominent “surprises” among the candidates.
There will be state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in the fall. On Monday, Wagenknecht announced his intention to compete with the BSW in all three countries. However, she kept a back door open: the project depended on whether “lists of competent people” could be drawn up.
In front of Wagenknecht and her comrades-in-arms
These were the most spectacular party departures in the history of the Federal Republic
Klaus Ernst has a special task in the Bundestag
This is one of the biggest sticking points for the new party. Hardly anyone knows this better than Klaus Ernst. The merger between WASG and the Left was successful because the new party was able to rely on the already well-developed party apparatus of the PDS. The BSW currently lacks these structures. The hope that entire left-wing associations and their structures could switch to Wagenknecht has so far only been fulfilled in isolated cases.
Wagenknecht also expects the European elections to send a “national political signal”. That’s why she wants to be very present in the election campaign. She will not run as a candidate herself. “My place is in the Bundestag,” she said on Monday. Together with the nine other MPs who split off from the Left with her, she has applied for group status. Then she and her new party could continue to be visible on the federal stage.
And here too it depends on Klaus Ernst. The man, who has a penchant for sports cars and thus earned the nickname “Porsche-Klaus,” will be their deputy in the new Bundestag group. He has to support Wagenknecht in the Bundestag and keep the group together when the new party leader tours the country for her alliance.