Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht

BSW—For Reason and Justice (German: BSW - Für Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit e.V.) is a registered association created by members of the German political party The Left for the purposes of founding a splinter party.[3] The plans for the new party were presented at a federal press conference on 23 October 2023 by Bundestag members Sahra Wagenknecht, Amira Mohamed Ali, and Christian Leye, former managing director of The Left in North Rhine-Westphalia Lukas Schön, and the Karlsruhe information technology entrepreneur and investor Ralph Suikat.[4][5]

BSW—For Reason and Justice
BSW - Für Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit e.V.
AbbreviationBSW
LeaderSahra Wagenknecht
ChairpersonAmira Mohamed Ali
Deputy chairpersonChristian Leye
Board chairpersonSahra Wagenknecht
FoundersSahra Wagenknecht
Amira Mohamed Ali
Christian Leye
Lukas Schön
Ali Al-Dailami
Founded26 September 2023 (2023-09-26)
Split fromThe Left
HeadquartersLorenzstraße 29
76135 Karlsruhe
IdeologyLeft-wing populism
Left-wing nationalism
Cultural conservatism
Anti-neoliberalism
Soft Euroscepticism
Russophilia
Political positionLeft-wing[1][2]
Colours  Purple
  Orange
Bundestag
10 / 736
[lower-alpha 1]
Bundesrat
0 / 69
State Parliaments
0 / 1,894
European Parliament
0 / 96
Heads of State Governments
0 / 16
Website
buendnis-sahra-wagenknecht.de
^ A: It has been variously described as left-wing, far-left, and left-conservative; the latter label is due to its more right-wing stance on socio-cultural issues.

Mohamed Ali announced that she, Wagenknecht, Leye, and seven other members of the Bundestag faction would leave The Left and form part of the newly-founded BSW, but remain part of the The Left's parliamentary group (Fraktion) to ensure it still maintained parliamentary privileges. The main goal of the BSW association is to build a structure for a new party led by Wagenknecht.[6] The association is sceptical of both green politics and support for Ukraine in the Russo-Ukrainian War.[7][8]

History

Background
Party founder Sahra Wagenknecht in 2023

Wagenknecht, who has been described as a prominent left-wing politician,[9] was a member of The Left and its predecessors, such as the Party of Democratic Socialism and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany; her political positions are generally identified as left-wing populist.[10][11] Although she was co-leader of The Left from 2015 to 2019, conflict with other party members on topics, such as the German refugee policy, COVID-19 vaccination, and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine had led to speculation since 2021 that she would leave The Left and found a splinter party.[10] This speculation increased in the run-up to the 2023 Hessian state election and the 2023 Bavarian state election on 8 October, in which The Left failed to reach the 5% electoral threshold while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged in both.[12] The success of AfD led Wagenknecht to claim that a left-wing populist party could compete with the AfD while also respecting the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.[13]

Association registration

The association, based in Karlsruhe, was entered in the association register at the district court in Mannheim on 26 September 2023.[14] In mid-October, over fifty members of The Left submitted an application for Wagenknecht's exclusion from the party in order to prevent her from building a new party with the resources of The Left.[15] Members of the party and political commentators blamed the ongoing speculation about the founding of a new party and the resulting breakup of the Left for its poor results in the state elections.[12] Martin Schirdewan, federal chairman of The Left and co-chair of The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL, declared that the party would expel members who committed to the founding of a rival party by BSW.[16] The Federal Executive Board of The Left passed a resolution of incompatibility (Unvereinbarkeitsbeschluss) with BSW.[17]

About the party's political prospects, Wolfgang Schroeder, a political scientist from the University of Kassel, said that half The Left's vote share could go to BSW, which would mean The Left would not enter the Bundestag at the next German federal election. Conversely, research by Constantin Wurthmann, a political scientist at the University of Erlangen, and political scientists Sarah Wagner and Jan-Philipp Tomeczek found that BSW could also hurt the far-right. Wurthmann, who stated that Wagenknecht was "socio-culturally on the right", commented: "Our data shows that Wagenknecht's approval is higher among AfD voters than among Die Linke voters. ... [She] is liked ... by people who consider themselves conservative, are critical of immigration, and partially come from the east."[18] According to an Insa poll, around 12% of Germans said they would vote for BSW.[19] An opinion poll by Civey indicated that 20% of Germans could "imagine in principle" voting for a hypothetical party led by Wagenknecht. The poll also found that supporters of the Left Party and te AfD were the ones to be most open to voting for such a party, the figure being as high as 32% in eastern Germany.[9] A poll by Bild found that 27 percent of voters would consider voting for Wagenknecht's party. Manfred Güllner, whose polling firm, the Forsa Institute, conducted a poll about Wagenknecht's party, said that it has as much a chance of attracting voters from traditional parties as it does of attracting those who vote on the right.[20]

Political positions

The political positions of BSW include further restrictions on immigration, a plan for deglobalization, opposition to green politics, ending military aid to Ukraine, and a negotiated settlement to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Wagenknecht considers BSW to stand primarily in opposition to The Left and Alliance 90/The Greens, which she describes as representing "weird minorities" instead of "normal people".[21] BSW has been variously described as populist,[7][20] economically socialist,[9] cultural conservative on social issues,[9] and pro-Russia in foreign policy,[22][23][24] which Wagenknecht denied.[7] BSW is critical of sending weapons to Ukraine and its supporters in the Russo-Ukrainian War, and blames NATO for escalating the conflict.[21] Amidst the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Wagenknecht described the Gaza Strip as an "open air prison".[25]

The party has been described as left-wing,[20][26] or far-left,[9][27] while being right-wing on socio-cultural issues, such as immigration and gender diversity, which has been compared to the Socialist Party in the Netherlands and the Communist Party of Greece.[9] Sarah Wagner, a postdoctoral researcher in political science at Mannheim University who has studied Wagenknecht's political rise, commented: "We can't really say exactly how many people align themselves with left-conservative values. But what we can say is that it's a significant group. We have never seen this combination in a party in Germany before."[9] BSW has been described as a left-conservative party,[9] in part due to its left-leaning economic positions and having right-leaning social and cultural positions, which have been described by Wurthmann as being popular among anti-establishment and right-leaning voters.[19] Wagenknecht felt that The Left had become left-liberal and what she called "left-lifestyle" rather than left-wing, and accused progressives in The Left of being "too focused on diet, pronouns, and the perception of racism, and are not worried enough about poverty and an ever-growing gap between rich and poor."[9][20]

The party has also been described as left-wing populist - Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk described the party as a left-wing one with social justice at its core, but with social positions similar to those of right-wing parties.[28] Die Zeit named the party's ideology "conservative-tinted left-wing populism", given the party's socialist economic positions combined with "rejection of everything perceived as the expression of a woken metropolitan hipsterism"; the party has a conservative stance on refugee and migration and a nationalistic attitude towards other social issues.[29] Political commentators also point to the party's foreign stance, that is on one hand isolationist and pacifist, but on the other hand cordial towards autocratic Russia. Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht has also been described as socialist, but with nationalist and conservative leanings; Münchner Merkur labelled the party "national and socialist", writing: "For Wagenknecht, nationalism no longer seems to be the evil enemy, but a means and an end to mobilise people for her kind of socialism."[30] Similarly, Die Tageszeitung described the party's ideology as "socialism with a right-wing code".[31][32]

Members of the Parliament

Ten members of the Bundestag joined the party at its founding, including:

Polling

According to various polls, between 12 and 20 percent (with as high as 32% in eastern Germany) of Germans said they would vote for the party.[7][19][9] A survey of voters for T-Online found Left, AfD and FDP voters as well as non-voters/minor party voters most receptive to BSW, while CDU/CSU, SPD and especially Green voters were largely opposed.[33]

Reactions

The Left

Many members and activists within the party were relieved that Wagenknecht was leaving after months of hinting and speculation. Party members criticized BSW members of Bundestag for not returning back their mandates they had won for The Left. Some politicans of The Left expressed disappointment at the behavior of Wagenknecht's followers.[34][35] Schirdewan said that he was "personally disappointed" with the defectors, whom he said had damaged the party, and called on them to return their seats in the Bundestag to The Linke.[19] The Left vice-chairman Lorenz Gösta Beutin described Wagenknecht's formation of the party as motivated by personal financial gain: "The millionaire Wagenknecht is founding a party for Wagenknecht in order to collect corporate donations for a Wagenknecht party."[36]

The council of Left Youth Solid, the youth wing of The Left, was pleased with Wagenknecht's exit from the party. It stated: "Our fight has finally paid off: we were longingly awaiting her departure and called on the party to kick her out. The party can now begin the process of renewal."[36] The Left deputy parliamentary group leader Gesine Lötzsch said that a party founded by Wagenknecht should not be viewed as an opponent or enemy but as competition. She said they would look closely at how this party develops and what positions it takes up from the left. She added: "The real danger that I see is that our country is moving more and more to the right. If The Left parliamentary group no longer exists in the Bundestag, it will be even more difficult to stand against the governing coalition."[34]

Social Democratic Party of Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) general secretary Kevin Kühnert commented that "Sahra Wagenknecht has been a very established one-woman opposition for 30 years. But there is not a single political measure that is linked to her political activity where something has become better for people", and added that Wagenknecht is rarely present in the Bundestag, so he said that he is not too worried about her new party.[36]

Alternative for Germany

After the announcement of BSW's formation, the Brandenburg branch of the AfD fears a loss of votes in the state elections in the new states of Germany in 2024.[36]

Media

Deutschlandfunk commented: "For the AfD, a Wagenknecht party would be direct competition that could cost it a few percentage points and reduce its own voter potential among those disappointed by politics. Both the future Die Linke and the AfD lack charismatic figures like Wagenknecht."[21]

T-Online noted that alongside the AfD and Left, BSW also posed a threat to the centre-right Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), with around 26% of FDP voters willing to consider the party. It noted that although the FDP and BSW are opposites on most issues – with the FDP standing for open free-market liberalism – the bases of both parties are critical of German migration policy.[33]

See also

Notes
  1. BSW members sit in The Left's faction pending the official party launch in early 2024.

References
  3. Junginger, Bernhard (9 October 2023). "Die Linke liegt am Boden: Erster Schritt für Wagenknecht-Partei". Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  4. Vorreyer, Thomas. "Bald neue Partei: Wo Sahra Wagenknecht hinwill". Tagesschau (in German). Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  5. "Wagenknecht will Partei-Pläne am Montag vorstellen". Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (in German). 20 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  6. "Wagenknecht und neun Getreue treten offiziell aus Linkspartei aus – und verkünden neue Partei". Der Spiegel (in German). 23 October 2023. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  7. "Germany's far-left star quits post-Communists to found populist party". Reuters. 23 October 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  8. "Wagenknecht im Visier Putins? Deutsche Antikriegskoalition mit AfD soll Westen diskreditieren". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). 23 April 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  9. Knight, Ben (23 October 2023). "Wagenknecht: A far-left challenge to Germany's far-right AfD – DW – 10/23/2023". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  10. Georgi, Oliver (23 October 2023). "Was Wagenknecht riskiert". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  11. Von der Burchard, Hans (24 October 2023). "German hard-left icon set to start a new populist party". Politico. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  12. Budweg, Alexander (10 October 2023). "Die Linke hat nicht nur ein Wagenknecht-Problem". Tagesschau. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  13. Lill, Tobias (8 August 2023). "Sahra Wagenknecht auf dem Weg zur eigenen Partei: Besser Populisten als Rechtsextreme". Abendzeitung München. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  14. "Register-Eintrag enthüllt Namen: Wagenknecht-Partei könnte "BSW" heißen". Frankfurter Rundschau (in German). 7 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.
  15. Budweg, Alexander. "Linken-Mitglieder wollen Wagenknecht ausschließen". Tagesschau (in German). Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  16. "Sahra-Wagenknecht-Partei: Linken-Chef droht Mitgliedern mit Ausschluss". Der Spiegel (in German). 22 October 2023. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  17. "Linken-Politikerin bestätigt Pläne: Wagenknecht will mit neuer Partei politische Leerstelle füllen". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  18. Alipour, Nick (13 October 2023). "German left party facing existential crisis ahead of EU election". Euractiv.com. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  19. Alipour, Nick (23 October 2023). "Germany's left-wing rebel launches populist party to run in EU elections". Euractiv.com. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  20. Schuetze, Christopher F. (23 October 2023). "Leftist Upstart Threatens to Shake up German Politics With Her Own". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  21. "Wagenknecht-Partei: Chancen, Inhalte und Folgen". Deutschlandfunk (in German). 24 October 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  22. Hesse, Michael (18 September 2023). "Historiker über Wagenknecht: „Putinsche Stimme in Deutschland"" [Historian on Wagenknecht: “Putin’s voice in Germany”]. Frankfurter Rundschau (in German).
  23. "Wagenknecht und AfD unter dem Einfluss von Putin und dem Kreml?" [Wagenknecht and AfD under the influence of Putin and the Kremlin?]. Euronews.com (in German). 22 April 2023. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  24. Anastasiadis, Georg (24 October 2023). "Weg von den USA, hin zu Russland: Wagenknechts gefährliches Abenteuer" [Away from the USA and towards Russia: Wagenknecht's dangerous adventure]. Merkur.de (in German).
  25. Scally, Derek (23 October 2023). "German Linke rebel walks out to form new left-wing populist party". The Irish Times. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  26. "New left-wing German political party headed by Sahra Wagenknecht could draw votes from far-right AfD". Euronews. 23 October 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  27. "New German Far-Left Party Aims to Challenge Scholz's Coalition". Bloomberg.com. 23 October 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  28. "Experte erwartet Mitglieder-Verlust bei der Linken im Osten". mdr.de (in German). 24 October 2023.
  29. Katharina Schuler (19 October 2023). "Sie selbst hat wenig zu verlieren, Land und Demokratie dagegen einiges". zeit.de (in German).
  30. Erwin Schaller (24 October 2023). "Stimmen zur neuen Wagenknecht-Partei". merkur.de (in German).
  31. Thorsten Holzhauser (14 June 2023). "Sozialismus mit rechtem Code". taz.de (in German).
  32. "Sozialismus mit rechtem Code". ostbelgiendirekt.be (in German). 23 October 2023.
  33. Schmidt, Florian (23 October 2023). "Diese Parteien müssen jetzt vor Wagenknecht zittern". T-Online. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  34. Aktuell, S. W. R. (23 October 2023). "Reutlinger Abgeordnete verlässt Die Linke und will sich Sahra Wagenknecht anschließen". swr.online (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  35. "FAQ: Was bedeuten Wagenknechts Pläne für die Politik?". tagesschau.de (in German). Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  36. "Wie die Linke auf Wagenknechts Abgang reagiert: »Totale Egoshow«". Der Spiegel (in German). 23 October 2023. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.