Why a 17-year-old supports the BSW

Luca Sass has been putting up posters for Sahra Wagenknecht for months. Why does the student support the BSW? BuzzFeed News Germany asks.

Both State elections in Thuringia In addition to the right-wing extremist AfD another big winner: The Alliance Sarah Wagenknecht (BSW), a split from the Left, achieved 15.8 percent. “Six months ago we didn’t exist and now we are the third strongest force in Thuringia. That is superhuman,” says 17-year-old Luca Sass from Jena BuzzFeed News Germany from IPPEN.MEDIA.

The student has been an official supporter of the BSW since June; one of around nine hundred in Thuringia. In the past few months he has put up over 100 posters for the BSW and has campaigned for Wagenknecht at election booths three to four times a week. “You work hard and hope that you will be rewarded,” says Sass. He wants to become a member of the BSW and is part of a group of around 25 young people who want to found a BSW youth alliance in Thuringia.

Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance: Why do young people support the BSW?

Sass and his friends want to be part of an alliance that members of the former GDR civil rights movement explicitly warn against. In an open letter, the former head of the Stasi Records Agency, Marianne Birthler, wrote of “national socialism” at the BSW and expressed concern about Wagenknecht’s foreign policy and her background as a former SED member. Even Russian state media promote the BSW.

Why do some young people (including Muslims) celebrate the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance anyway? “Because reason is once again worth something at the BSW,” says Sass. “Because you weigh things up, you don’t just say: you are now left or right and that is why you have that opinion.” The political scientist Klaus Schroeder from the Free University of Berlin confirms to BuzzFeed News Germanythat the classic left-right party spectrum, as we know it, is also being undermined by the BSW.

Sass believes that the BSW “breaks down the left-right thinking” and brings back a “real culture of debate”. “Just because someone says something, we don’t immediately push them into a corner,” he says. At the BSW, politicians from all parties come together and discuss things, that’s how he feels. So far, however, he has only been a supporter because the party wants to “build itself up slowly”, a “directive from above”, he says. BuzzFeed News Germany. He is therefore not entitled to vote, but hopes that this will change with the Election success of the BSW in Thuringia changes.

17-year-old BSW supporter: “AfD was never an option for me”

Sass makes no secret of the fact that he supports Wagenknecht’s foreign policy positions, including not supplying weapons to Ukraine. This is one reason why the CDU in Thuringia is hesitant about forming a coalition with the BSW. It bothers him that he is “immediately branded as a Russia supporter, no matter what I say.” “I want diplomacy,” he justifies himself.

“AfD was never an option for me,” says Sass. In contrast to the BSW, this party, he thinks, makes generalizations, for example when it comes to foreigners. “You can see that I don’t support that,” he says. The fact that the BSW has very similar positions to the AfD is no deterrent for him. Yes, that BSW wants to limit migration, like the AfDbut that’s what the traffic light parties wanted too, says Sass.

“I have been called right-wing and left-wing extremist”

“I have been called right-wing and left-wing extremists because I support the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance. For me, this is a symbol of how politics has become pigeonholed thinking.” Many people voted for the party precisely because of this. Björn Höcke –because they would be pigeonholed before they could even make an argument.

“This attitude has increased enormously in Thuringia in recent years,” he says. The elections now show how “tremendously dangerous” this is. Political scientists such as Wolfgang Muno also view the election results in Saxony and Thuringia with “concern”. Muno describes the dpa However, not only the AfD, but also the BSW are seen as “populist polarizers” against whom other parties will have difficulty using facts in the future.