Last Updated on 03/09/2024 by Arun jain
“We have become a power player in Germany,” and . In both states, the party she founded came third in January 2024. Now comes the business of forming new governments – if the parties do this without the far-right, as all have promised, the new BSW could be the kingmaker.
“People and I have noticed on the trail of this campaign, we have a lot of hope,” Wagenknecht asserted. BSW’s success shows how little people still trust the established parties and how many feel disillusioned. The AfD, which is “confirmed as right-wing extremist” by the local intelligence service, has also profited from this sentiment, according to WagenConnect.
BSW Election Focus: War and Peace
Former politician BSW is focusing on one key theme in the election campaign: war and peace. A sign of Russia’s war against Ukraine, with Germany supporting Kiev with arms. Wagenknecht’s party wants to change this.
The problem: Decisions about weapons deliveries or placing new medium-range US missiles in Germany are not made by the state governments of Saxony or Thuringia, but by the federal government and parliament based in Berlin. Despite this, Wagenknecht said: “People expect state governments to also reflect their position, their majority view, on this issue.”
“Half the people in Germany fear getting caught up in a big war, in the East it’s a majority,” Wagenkach said. According to him, the state government comprising BSW should clarify its position on the issue. It also means more diplomatic initiatives by the federal government. “And of course we expect the state premier to express this publicly,” Wagenknecht added.
Taking a similar stance, BSW top candidates Sabine Zimmermann (Saxony) and Katja Wolf (Thuringia), also on the left, said: “Sahara Wagenknecht will of course be closely involved in the question of war and peace and everything. That includes federal issues at the state level,” Wolf said.
She was ready to take charge of her state, Zimmerman explained: “But if and only if they don’t fundamentally change their policies, we will not participate in a coalition government here.” Saxony’s current state premier Michael Kreutzmeier of the conservative CDU has not ruled out an alliance with the BSW. “It’s not something I wished for, but I have to accept the realities,” he said Deutschlandfunk Broadcaster
Antonios Souris, a political scientist at the Free University of Berlin, suggested a compromise to overcome the opposing positions of the parties on the delivery of arms to Ukraine and: a declaration of intent in the coalition agreement that the state would work for peace or something similar.
between federal and state politics
Such a non-binding declaration may be palatable to all parties and their voters. “At the federal level the CDU will have learned not to interfere too much in state issues,” Souris told DW. On the other hand, WagonConnect will want its views to weigh in any coalition negotiations. “And the question remains how the CDU will react to this as it finally comes down,” the expert stressed.
The post-election landscape is also trickier in Thuringia, where the left has led a minority government since 2019. Now they have been voted in and it looks like the future state premier will come from the CDU. In theory, a three-way alliance with the BSW and the Left is possible. The problem: The CDU refused to make a coalition deal with the AfD or the left during its federal party conference in 2018.
The CDU federal chairman wants to stick to that pledge. Despite this, the BSW top candidate in Thuringia, Katja Wolf, hopes that the state-level CDU is more flexible on the subject. “We will try to debate for a new political culture in Thuringia, precisely on this issue,” she announced.
BSW Party is confident in everything. “No one can ignore us,” said Sabine Zimmermann, her top candidate for Saxony. Political expert Antonios Souris also believes that the new party has a lot of potential. He labeled his establishment in East Germany and the timing of the state elections as a successful strategy – also looking ahead to next year’s federal elections: “They will still have the novelty factor.”
BSW: Small teams, big impact
Souris believes the focus on Sahara Wagenknecht is “incredibly smart”. With the help of social media, good election campaigning is possible even with small teams. In addition, the party’s top candidates in Saxony and Thuringia have really thrown themselves into action. The BSW was thus able to run a classic street-level election campaign despite a less developed party structure. Often in the middle of it all: Sahara Wagenknecht.
And what about the Left, the party where three of BSW’s most successful politicians spent many years? Souris said it depends on what happens in the coming months. He thinks others may switch camps from left to BSW. “We will probably see signs of disintegration,” opined the Berlin-based political scientist.
This article was originally written in German.
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