DThe founding act was carried out by 44 people on Monday morning. They founded the party “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – For Reason and Justice” (BSW). This is what the woman whose name the party bears reported it a few hours later at the federal press conference in Berlin. She is trying to emphasize the breadth of the new party. Former left-wing politicians were there, including entrepreneurs, doctors, professors and even theologians. Contrary to what was initially announced, the party is led by Wagenknecht himself, but in a dual leadership together with the former parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag, Amira Mohamed Ali.
The plans for this year are ambitious. Wagenknecht announces that the party will take part in the European elections and three state elections in East Germany, in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. Democracy, says Wagenknecht, is not threatened there by the voters, but by a policy that makes people “feel let down or offended.” Her new party’s goal is to overcome “incompetence and arrogance in Berlin’s government district”.
No direct switch from the AfD to the BSW
Wagenknecht calls it a “mammoth task” to build up the party’s structures over the next few months while also running election campaigns. But the party should be controlled and therefore grow slowly. In a first step, only 450 people should be admitted on Monday and Tuesday. Everyone else has to wait. You can become a sponsor and supporter, i.e. donate to the party or help in the election campaigns. You can also become a member later, says Wagenknecht, apparently after a period of probation. You don’t want to fall into the trap of accepting people who don’t contribute “constructively” or who pursue a completely different political direction. There will be no direct transfer of members of the AfD to the BSW, promises Wagenknecht.
In addition to Wagenknecht, Mohamed Ali and the Secretary General Christian Leye, the two men who are to run as the top candidates for the BSW in the European elections are also sitting on the stage: the financial politician Fabio De Masi and Thomas Geiselthe former SPD mayor of Düsseldorf, two extremely eloquent and self-confident men.
De Masi previously worked in the European Parliament and then worked as a member of the Bundestag for the Left Party until 2021. He actually didn’t want to seek political office again, but “the disastrous politics” of the traffic light and Wagenknecht’s advertising persuaded him to make a different decision, says De Masi. In the long term, the new force should become a “people’s party”.
Geisel’s motivation for joining the BSW is that social cohesion in Germany is being lost and the gap between rich and poor is widening. In addition, “parallel societies developed, especially in migrant milieus, which are becoming increasingly difficult to integrate.” Geisel’s move from the Social Democrats to the Wagenknecht Party came for the SPD surprised. He only applied for his resignation via email on Sunday, it was said on Monday. Geisel says that he remains true to his social democratic goals, but that he can achieve them better in the BSW, a party “that does not remain in a bubble”.
“Mad people” demand Taurus rockets
He gives another reason for his change: The SPD has always pursued the “policy of peace,” but now Germany has become the “main supplier” of weapons to Ukraine, “in a war that cannot be won.” Wagenknecht once again calls for the war to be ended through negotiations and an armistice to be agreed. There is even talk about this in the USA, “while in Germany some crazy people are demanding the delivery of Taurus rockets”. This was recently demanded by the former Federal President Joachim Gauck and the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
The civil engineer and economist Shervin Hagsheno will be presented at the press conference as proof that newcomers to the party also have a chance. The 48-year-old professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology used to work for the construction company Bilfinger before switching to science. The majority has lost trust in the political center, says the professor, who was born in Tehran and came to Germany at the age of ten. He himself experienced social advancement through integration and education, but now there is “failure” in these policy areas. However, Hagsheno, who is deputy party chairman, does not speak again after his opening statement during the press conference.
The decisive factor for the success of the new party will be whether it can attract more politicians and build structures in the states. In Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, state associations must be founded and lists drawn up at election meetings. On Monday, Wagenknecht was optimistic that this would succeed. “People expect us to compete, and I expect we will,” she says. “We will draw up lists of competent people,” she promises. And De Masi promises “further surprises” when it comes to personnel in the coming weeks.