Sahra Wagenknecht is late, but she has a tip. Anyone who goes to the European elections on Sunday should not be put off by the long ballot paper in the polling station. After all, her party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), is so far down on the paper. “The best way is actually to open the ballot paper from the bottom,” calls the party leader from the stage. “There’s only nonsense at the top anyway.” The square between Magdeburg Central Station and a shopping center is full on this Wednesday afternoon – and cheers for the BSW leader. A blue flag with a dove of peace is flying, “Out of NATO” is written on it. Many pensioners are there, several hundred in total. It is the penultimate day of the election campaign tour, which is due to end on Thursday in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. Wagenknecht filled the market squares across the country.
Shortly before the European elections on Sunday, Wagenknecht wants to put pressure on the party once again and mobilize voters. The BSW is polling at six to seven percent of the vote – Wagenknecht’s former party, Die Linke, is hovering around three to four. The first big test in the voting booth could go well despite all the difficulties in finding the right candidate.
The supporters are euphoric. “Here they talk about my hope: peace,” says Andreas Schmidt, 69. On a sign he speaks out “against Russophobia and warmongering.” Only Wagenknecht stands “consistently for peace,” he says. “Putin is not warmongering. He was dragged into war.”
A woman who does not want to give her name says: “Our media are lying to us, facts are being concealed.” She reads Russia Today, a media funded by the Russian state that has been banned in the European Union since 2022. Unjustly, says the woman. “Sahra finally wants to give us the right information.” And her partner adds angrily: “ARD and ZDF are promoting racial hatred against Russians. They should be shut down.”
As Wagenknecht speaks, the two hold up two homemade signs. “Thank you Sahra, keep it up,” is written on hers. “Diplomacy
“We can’t let them get away with their talk and their lies anymore,” says Wagenknecht on stage, referring in particular to the traffic light coalition in Berlin. Because, of course, there are more and more crises and wars in the world, but elsewhere the prices for food and energy are not rising as much as in Germany.
“Nevertheless, children in schools in other countries still learn to read, write and do arithmetic properly.” But in Germany, “the worst federal government the Federal Republic has ever had” is in power.
This is reflected in the high energy prices. The sanctions against Russia are damaging Germany in particular and have been implemented by “moral world champions” in the federal government. “Putin is laughing his head off about it because he can sell his oil and gas anywhere else,” says Wagenknecht. Her supporters in Magdeburg are delighted.
But the mood is not so good everywhere. In the week before the European elections, the young party is making its first serious dispute public. In Thuringia – where the party can hope to participate in government after the state elections in the autumn – things are heating up. Mario Forchhammer resigned from the BSW state executive committee on Tuesday. The former assessor complains of a “cronyism” surrounding the state list, where “careerists” are mainly in the top positions.
“Many members are waiting for an explanation as to how the list came about. I can’t tell them, it’s completely opaque,” Forchhammer told WELT on Tuesday evening. “Many supporters find out things in the newspaper that I, as a board member, don’t know about.” There have been personal attacks on Forchhammer by the state chairperson, complains the ex-Leftist. At the board meeting on Monday, he was even asked to leave. “In the past, in the disco, the attacker was thrown out, not the person attacked.”
It is not surprising, however, that the restrictive membership policy also generates dissatisfaction. Anyone who wants to join the BSW can register as a supporter. Many of them support the election campaign. Becoming a member is much more difficult and only possible after a process of getting to know each other. Wagenknecht wants to keep troublemakers out of the party, as she has emphasized since the party was founded. There is no need for “factions between the wings,” the party leader explained on the sidelines of the Thuringian state party conference on Saturday. “I want to give voters the guarantee that they are voting for what I stand for.”
Forchhammer, on the other hand, says that “Vitamin B” decides who makes it into the party and who doesn’t. This is also reflected in the Thuringian list. “People came into the party with their court,” says the resigned member, who nevertheless wants to stay in the party. “There are attempts to kill Sarah’s baby in Thuringia.”
The BSW leadership in Thuringia is trying to limit the damage. “I regret this resignation and the dissatisfaction that is being expressed here,” says BSW regional head Steffen Schütz. He wants to seek a clarifying discussion with Forchhammer before commenting on the specific allegations. “This is not only a matter of decency, but also our understanding of reasonable cooperation,” Schütz told WELT.
However, the party has one success to report these days. The Higher Administrative Court of North Rhine-Westphalia ruled in favor of the party on Tuesday: BSW top candidate Fabio De Masi must be invited to the ARD program “Election Arena 2024 Europe”. WDR initially did not invite the BSW to the discussion of all the other parties represented in the Bundestag.
So De Masi will be sitting in the TV panel on Thursday evening – and is celebrating this as a success this Wednesday in Magdeburg. “If they want to keep us out of the ARD talk shows, then the best answer is to bring five more people with you into the voting booth,” said De Masi, looking ahead to election day.
In the television studio, the BSW top candidate will then meet those he calls “couch heroes” with “free courage” in Magdeburg. These federal politicians demanded arms deliveries to Ukraine, even though their children are not being sent to war – while voices for peace are being discredited. One of them, according to De Masi, is Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. The FDP top candidate is particularly hated in the BSW because of her support for arms deliveries to Ukraine and is referred to as either “Flak-Zimmermann” or “Strack-Rheinmetall”.
De Masi also has a tip for such “couch generals”: Strack-Zimmermann should put on a Borussia Dortmund jersey. “So that we know who is sponsoring these politicians who are making politics in the interests of the arms industry.” The football club recently signed a sponsorship agreement with the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall.