The alliance around Sahra Wagenknecht is getting closer to founding a party. This should formally take place at the beginning of January, for which the club is said to have already collected one million euros. The first party conference is apparently planned for the end of January.
The “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” (BSW) wants to meet on January 27th in Berlin for the first party conference. The “Spiegel” and the dpa news agency reported on this. Before that, the new party is to be formally founded at the beginning of January and the first 400 members are to be accepted. According to “Spiegel” information, the statutes are currently being drawn up.
Sahra Wagenknecht, a long-time member and temporary parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag, resigned from the party in October along with nine other MPs. The alliance currently only exists as an association and is not yet a party. The founding of the party is currently being prepared and donations are being collected for it.
Seven-figure sum in donations
Treasurer Ralph Suikat told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”: “We will reach a seven-figure sum in these days.” He added: “That sounds like a lot at first, but in an election campaign the major parties spend double-digit millions. In that respect we are satisfied, but we still have a long way to go.”
Wagenknecht said this SWR, there are donations in the single-digit to five-digit range. “Fortunately, we receive a lot of donations, a lot of small donations.” She also confirmed that the party was planned to be founded in January.
The new party wants to run in the European elections next year and, if possible, in the three state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.
Expert: Party law could be undermined
According to the legal scholar and party researcher Sophie Schönberger, the BSW’s approach could be legally problematic. The rules for party financing are much stricter than association law, she told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The suspicion arises that the aim of the BSW association is to undermine party law. Parties are not allowed to receive donations from other EU countries, but associations are.
BSW treasurer Suikat assured that the BSW does not accept foreign donations. Even before the party was founded, the association was run as if it were subject to party law. According to Wagenknecht, the donations collected will be transferred when the party is founded at the beginning of January.
“But if I receive money that is only passed through someone else, then that is an illegal straw man donation,” Schönberger told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. Despite the assurances, no one can control where the club’s money comes from.