The Sahra Wagenknecht alliance collects donations – also from abroad. The origin of the funds raises questions.
Berlin – If you want to do politics, you don't just need conviction. In order to reach voters, you also need a lot of money. Donations are of course welcome. The alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), the former left-wing politician, has received numerous such donations from abroad, according to a media report. Money also flowed from countries outside Europe, the reported Picture on Sunday.
This was confirmed by the association “BSW – for Reason and Justice e. V.” at the newspaper’s request. The alliance did not want to say from which countries the donors transferred the money. According to the club, the total amount is almost 17,000 euros. That's around 1.5 percent of the total donations, said treasurer Ralph Suikat on Sunday (December 10th). German press agency.
Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht: Donations of over one million euros
The club rallied loudly Picture on Sunday brought in around 1.1 million euros in just under seven weeks. According to information from the newspaper, there were also large donations of 20,000 and 50,000 euros. He had Suikat South German newspaper previously said on Friday that “we will reach a seven-figure sum in these days”.
The BSW was founded at the end of September and is intended to prepare the founding of a party. According to information from the news magazine Mirror The founding party conference is scheduled to take place in Berlin on January 27th.
All individual donations from abroad did not exceed the value of 1,000 euros each, the association explained to the BamS. In doing so, he voluntarily follows the rules of the party law. In principle, parties are not allowed to receive donations of more than 1000 euros from countries outside of the EU assume.
BSW is currently subject to association law
Suikat had opposite the South Germans assures that the BSW is already being run as if it were subject to party law. “We will therefore transfer back amounts over 1,000 euros that were transferred from abroad without prior agreement,” it says on the BSW website.
Experts are critical of fundraising because the association could circumvent the legal regulations on party financing. The legal scholar and party researcher Sophie Schönberger told the South Germans, the rules for financing parties are much stricter than association law. The suspicion arises that the aim of the BSW association is to undermine party law.
State associations of the future party are initially to be founded in Thuringia, Brandenburg and Saxony, where state elections are due next year. Wagenknecht also wants to take part in the European elections.
Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht: Account at Volksbank Pirna
According to the report, Wagenknecht is responsible for receiving the donations BamS selected an account at Volksbank Pirna in Saxony. When asked by the newspaper, the association stated that Wagenknecht did not want “a large bank with call centers” and was striving for “decentralization”. The association's headquarters is in Karlsruhe.
According to information from Volksbank Pirna Daily Mirror and Corrective both the left-wing extremist Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany from Gelsenkirchen and the right-wing one Pegida-The support association has its donation collection account. Likewise, the video agency Ruptly, which belongs to the Russian media company TV-Novosti, which has been on the EU sanctions list since 2022. The bank's CEO Hauke Haensel says he maintains close contacts with Russia. (skr/afp/dpa)
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