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Around midday, the West feels like it’s about to collapse. Sahra Wagenknecht enters the Berlin stage – it’s her show, from A to Z. Sahra Wagenknecht in the fight against actually: everyone. Today her new party, the “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht,” is meeting for its first party conference. The Kosmos cinema in East Berlin is packed to capacity, full of fans and therefore new party members.
Wagenknecht wants to pick up the dissatisfied
Sahra Wagenknecht came with her husband, the former German SPD finance minister Oskar Lafontaine. He sits in the audience and listens to his wife, who knows that she has to give the speech of her life today. Then she gets started: “We are now setting out together to change politics in Germany. We do this because we sense that something is changing in our society. There are so many problems, so much uncertainty, but also so much indignation and anger.”
Sounds a lot like populism – Wagenknecht wants to pick up the dissatisfied – and from her perspective that’s actually everyone here in Germany. Bullied, excluded, not taken seriously by the “Trio Infernale” from Scholz, Habeck, Baerbock. And CDU leader Friedrich Merz is probably not an alternative either. If something doesn’t happen now, it could “lead to a catastrophe.” And of course there is only one possible rescuer, herself: Sahra Wagenknecht.
“It’s just me against everyone”
Often accused of being friendly to Putin (which she denies), Wagenknecht rails against the EU and therefore Germany’s Russia policy. Weapons deliveries to Kiev should be stopped “since the Ukrainian generals themselves no longer believe in victory.” The sanctions must also be removed and Russian gas should flow through the pipelines to Germany again.
NATO should also be contained and the EU along with it. Because Europe is friendly to America, Europe is being crushed between the power blocs and drawn into conflicts.
Especially when it comes to foreign policy issues, there are major overlaps with the AfD, the “Alternative for Germany”. So Wagenknecht has to differentiate himself here too, after all her formula is: “I alone against everyone.”
Catching votes on the margins
It is unclear whether this will work. First of all, and this is what the Berlin pollster from “Civey”, Janina Mütze, also thinks, Wagenknecht will cannibalize her old party, “The Left”. But then there is also great potential with the AfD.
Meanwhile, the SPD, CDU, the Greens and the FDP are looking quite calmly at Wagenknecht’s appearance and thus his entry into the German political landscape. Let them all tear each other apart on the fringes – this is the secret hope in the Berlin party headquarters.
Will this work? The first test is the European elections in June – and then the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg follow in the fall. Who will believe the story of the West on the brink? And will the Wagenknecht party make it into parliament? The political autumn of 2024 will probably go down in the history books as one of the most interesting. But the downfall of the West will almost certainly not happen.
Stefan Reinhart
Head of foreign correspondents
Open the people box. Close the people box