Sahra Wagenknecht has left the Left and wants to found her own party with a small team of allies in 2024. Several left-wing politicians want to follow her – the left will probably lose its parliamentary group status in the Bundestag.
There had been speculation about this for a long time, but now Sahra Wagenknecht has confirmed that she is leaving the Left and wants to found a new party. In Berlin she presented her project “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” (BSW), the aim of which is to launch a new party by the beginning of next year, which will then run for the first time in the 2024 European elections.
In addition to Wagenknecht, ten other Left members have left the party. Nine of them sit in the Bundestag, which is why the Left will lose its parliamentary group status there. The group currently has 38 members. If there are two fewer MPs, the current minimum number for a parliamentary group in the Bundestag is no longer met. Wagenknecht announced that she and her colleagues with a Bundestag mandate wanted to remain in the parliamentary group until it was founded. She also justified this with consideration for employees in the group and an “orderly transition”.
From January at the latest, the Left parliamentary group will no longer be able to exist, said Wagenknecht. In addition to fewer rights in parliamentary operations, this also means the loss of significant resources from the Bundestag administration, especially for the employment of employees.
In addition to Wagenknecht, the previous parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali also left the party. She is the chairwoman of the new alliance. Its managing director is the former managing director of the Left in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lukas Schön, treasurer of the millionaire Ralph Suikat.
Mohamed Ali: “Exit was not easy”
Mohamed Ali said that leaving the Left Party “was not easy.” However, despite repeated electoral defeats, the Left has not corrected its course and is on the way to insignificance. Many people have lost trust in politics. The new party wants to fill this gap. The BSW stands up for everyone who is “not on the bright side of life” but works hard, she said.
When presenting her plans, Wagenknecht once again criticized the federal government, which – “of all things” at a time of increasing wars and conflicts – was “probably the worst” in the history of the Federal Republic. Many people voted to the right out of anger or desperation – things shouldn’t continue like this, she said. “Otherwise we won’t recognize our country in ten years.” What is needed is “a return to reason”.