The new populist left-wing party is born in Germany that aims to steal votes from the far right

The political landscape is expanding in Germany. A new formation, with the potential to obtain more than 10% of the votes, was born this Monday by one of the icons of the German left, Sahra Wagenknecht. The charismatic former leader of the post-communists of Die Linke (The Left), has just founded another party of more than obvious personalism: it is called BSW – Reason and Justice. The acronym responds, in German, to the Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance. She herself will co-chair it along with Amira Mohamed Ali, who also left Die Linke (The Left) three months ago to join the new project.

The formation aims to capitalize on the protest vote that is growing month by month due to discontent with the coalition government of Olaf Scholz. The tripartite of social democrats, greens and liberals loses its footing with each new survey that is published and remains mired in a serious budget crisis that has worsened citizen perception of the progress of the economy. Analysts predict that BSW will steal part of its electorate from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the party that until now had managed to benefit from dissatisfaction with the Executive.

Wagenknecht announced his departure from Die Linke last October. He took nine other deputies from the party with her, which caused the leftist party to lose the parliamentary group, plunging this party into an even deeper crisis. In the last elections (September 2021), Die Linke was already on the verge of being left out of the chamber for not reaching 5% of the votes. Born first as an association, with the aim of attracting donations to be able to finance itself, it was finally officially established as a party this Monday. In this time it has raised 1.4 million euros, mainly from small donations, according to its treasurer, millionaire businessman Ralph Suikat, one of the team's star signings.

The new party will debut in the European elections on June 9, in which Wagenknecht will not stand, as confirmed this Monday at a busy press conference in Berlin. In his place will be former Die Linke deputy Fabio de Masi and veteran SPD politician and former Düsseldorf mayor Thomas Geisel. Wagenknecht will also not lead the lists in the three regional elections that will star in German political news this fall. Saxony, Brandenburg and Thuringia, three state Eastern countries where populist speeches are being widely received, will elect new parliaments. In all of them the polls give the far-right AfD the winner.

Take advantage of disenchantment

Wagenknecht wants to take advantage of the disenchantment of Germans with the increase in irregular immigration and the economic crisis, the fishing ground in which the AfD has been fishing, with great success, for the last year. The ultra formation is full of energy after its successes in the elections in Bavaria and Hesse last October, where it obtained its best historical result. Polls assure that if Germans went to the polls now, AfD would achieve around 22% and would be comfortably in second position at the federal level, only behind the Christian Democrats of the CDU.

The new party of the eternal rebel of Die Linke now aims to recover the leftist votes that migrated towards the populism of the AfD. It is no coincidence that the word “left” does not appear in the party's name. The objective is to appeal to as broad a spectrum as possible: from traditionally left-wing values, such as the defense of workers and the redistribution of wealth, to a more restrictive immigration policy, including the rejection of woke up —the term adopted by the American right to criticize climate policies, equality policies, etc.— or the criticism of German military aid to Ukraine and the request for an end to sanctions on Russia.

Many of the solutions proposed by Wagenknecht are not feasible, starting with the return of Russian gas that contributed so much to the strength of German industry, but they have a clear effect on the electorate. The party still has no program – its first formal meeting as a party will be held on January 27 – nor regional associations; only five pages of political manifesto that he presented in October with headings as vague as “Economic reason”, “social justice”, “peace” or “freedom”. Despite this, the potential is enormous, as the survey shows Deutschlandtrend last November. To the question “Do you think a new party led by Sahra Wagenknecht would be good for Germany?”, 36% answered affirmatively.

Politics is aware of this potential, and will appeal to those disenchanted with “the worst Government in the history of the Federal Republic”, which this Monday it accused of “incompetence and arrogance.” Citizens, he said in October, “are worried and don't know who to vote for.” Many of them vote far-right “out of anger or desperation,” he added. With its sights set on the eastern states of the former GDR – where it is not seen as contradictory to offer social proposals with a conservative mentality in other matters – and without left or right labels, the new party will undoubtedly bring changes to the German political landscape.

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