Sahra Wagenknecht: Often on talk shows, rarely in parliament

She is one of the most famous MPs. But because Wagenknecht is rarely to be found in the Bundestag, criticism hails. The Union accuses her of disregarding Parliament – and her fellow parliamentary groups are also outraged.

Where is Frau Wagenknecht? This question even moved members of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the past week. Opposition leader Friedrich Merz said: “It would be nice if the colleague were here instead of going through every TV show in Germany.”

In fact, Wagenknecht seems to be more present in the media than in parliament. For example in the past week: Monday evening Wagenknecht sits at the talk format “Hart aber Fair”, on Friday evening she speaks at an event with several hundred visitors in Schweinfurt. In between, she is absent, according to her office, because of a bad cold.

In a current hour, Philipp Amthor from the CDU calls out indignantly into the plenary hall: “Where is Ms. Wagenknecht? She is no longer here, she missed the last nine votes, her current hour too. You should rather clean up in our own ranks, dear colleagues.”

Wagenknecht speaks of “appointment collisions”

That gives applause from the Union. But the call dies on the left. The parliamentary group leadership does not want to say anything to the press and is leaving corresponding inquiries unanswered. In fact, the lists published by the Bundestag show that Sahra Wagenknecht was absent from at least the last nine roll-call votes in 2022. Not the only one, by the way. In the same period, her party friend and companion Sevim Dagdelen was absent eight times.

Wagenknecht defends himself in an email to the ARD Capital Studio, she had unfortunately been on sick leave several times and was therefore unable to take part in around 30 days of the sitting and the scheduled roll-call votes. In some cases, she had to miss entire weeks of meetings due to illness.

However, that doesn’t explain everything. Because Wagenknecht affirms her efforts to take part in roll-call votes, but admits that from her point of view there is sometimes no other way. She writes: “Unfortunately, votes by name are usually scheduled at short notice (…), so that scheduling collisions cannot always be avoided.”

The most prominent politician on the left admits that she does not go to meetings of the Bundestag because she attends “media appointments, program recordings or public events”. She calls it “colliding appointments”. Union MP Johann Wadephul speaks of “contempt for parliament” and recalls that Wagenknecht is receiving a diet for her work as an MP.

Achieve more on TV?

The Wagenknecht opponents in the ranks of the left faction also grumble, saying that this has been going on for years, but do not want to comment at the moment. However, Kathrin Vogler burst the collar last autumn. She wrote on Twitter: “It’s enough for me. We’re tearing up the A… here in order to formulate well-founded, pointedly comprehensible alternatives to the traffic light policy, to promote social protest and to counter the permanent agitation of the AfD. Then the laziest one will trend again MEPs with a completely out of place compass.”

It’s probably slipping because Wagenknecht came to the Bundestag as a left-wing deputy, but is representing the party and its program less and less. What’s more: Wagenknecht is also conspicuous by his absence at parliamentary group meetings, closed meetings and party conferences.

Her supporters argue differently: Sahra can achieve a lot more for her on television than in the Bundestag or at any meetings, they say. The criticized herself rejects the accusation of refusal to work. And with verve: Wagenknecht finds it “absurd”. Instead, self-praise and a reference to the attention she enjoys: “I have done more publicity work in the opposition than many other MPs. My last Bundestag speech on the Ukraine war is only on my own YouTube Channel has been viewed by more than 1.3 million people.”

Wagenknecht also argues that her video newsreel achieves a reach that no other German politician can match. She writes about the dialogue with citizens at her events. So there is Frau Wagenknecht.