Two new parties could compete for conservative votes in the future: the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) and possibly also the Values Union. Both call for a tough hand in asylum policy.
Even if the groups differ greatly from each other on economic issues, for example: both the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) and the Values Union represent an anti-immigration policy and attract attention with pithy to extreme statements. Both are vying for the favor of conservative voters.
The Sahra Wagenknecht alliance met for the first time last Saturday for a party conference. The party around the former left-wing politician wants to take part in the European elections and the three upcoming East German state elections. Hans-Georg Maaßen also wants to take part in the elections with his Values Union. A party has yet to be founded.
Union appears calm
So far, three parties have dominated the right-of-center voter spectrum: the conservative popular parties CDU and CSU and the partly right-wing extremist AfD. However, the Union is calm about the announced new competitors. The CDU Prime Minister in Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, recently responded to his position on the Values Union in an interview by saying that the “really conservative, bourgeois force in Germany” were the CDU and the CSU.
Instead, the Union is concentrating on the confrontation with the AfD. In the past, parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz has repeatedly irritated people with right-wing populist statements, for example about social benefits for asylum seekers.
Recently, however, Merz seemed to be trying to establish a clearer demarcation from the radical AfD. In a press conference in mid-January, he rejected “any kind” of cooperation with the AfD.
“Little space” between the AfD and the Union
Between the CDU/CSU parties and the AfD, there is little room in the political spectrum for another conservative party, says political scientist Markus Kollberg from Humboldt University in Berlin. The Union scores particularly well with voters on the issues of internal security and the economy. The AfD, on the other hand, dominates the issue of immigration.
As with a start-up company, the success of new parties depends on whether they can demonstrate a unique selling point, says Kollberg. The announced new WertUnion party has not yet been able to gain an exclusive focus on any topic in the public eye. The threat to the Union and the AfD should therefore be manageable.
BSW meets bigger things Voter potential
Things look a little different for the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance. The political scientist Sarah Wagner from the University of Belfast has dealt intensively with this new foundation. The BSW is the first party to position itself economically on the left and socio-politically on the right, says Wagner. In doing so, it appeals to a potential voter that has not yet been represented in the political spectrum.
Wagner therefore believes the BSW’s chances of success are better than those of the Values Union. In addition, chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht takes a very credible position against immigration and migration. Nevertheless, it is too early to make reliable statements about possible election results.
Wagner also believes discussions about possible coalition models are premature: For a newly founded party, the five percent hurdle is the biggest challenge.
In the current one ARD Germany trend For the first time, the research institute infratest dimap also representatively collected approval for the newly founded BSW. The result: Five percent of the potential voters surveyed said they wanted to give their vote to the BSW.
According to the research institute, a particularly large number of them said they were worried about their social decline and were skeptical about migration in general. The AfD loses three percentage points of approval in the current survey and would get 19 percent of the vote. However, there are no signs that the AfD is generally perceived as worse.