Sahra Wagenknecht also wants to lure voters away from the AfD with her party project. She hopes for tens of thousands of participants, but also admits that her project is not without risk.
The politician Sahra Wagenknecht is also targeting previous AfD voters with her planned new party. “Of course there are a lot of people who vote for the AfD, not because they are right-wing, but because they are angry, because they are desperate,” said the former left-wing politician on ZDF’s “heute journal” yesterday evening.
That is also one reason why she and her colleagues are starting the new project. Many people are angry about government policy and don’t know what to vote for. “Many have drawn the conclusion that, okay, if there is nothing else for now, we will vote for the AfD. We want to give these people a serious offer,” said Wagenknecht.
“Reputable address” with concepts and answers
Wagenknecht admitted in the ARD “Tagesthemen” that the AfD had managed to be the address of discontent. Their voters should get a “reputable address” that not only articulates protest, but also has concepts and answers and puts social justice on the agenda. “The AfD actually doesn’t do that,” emphasized Wagenknecht.
The 54-year-old presented the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance” yesterday with several fellow campaigners. The association is expected to lead to the founding of a new party in 2024. Wagenknecht had previously resigned from the party along with nine other former Left MPs. The 38-member left-wing faction in the Bundestag is therefore on the verge of dissolution; it could only continue as a group with fewer right-wingers. Wagenknecht rejected the party leadership’s demand to return the mandates and allow successors to take part, pointing out that she had also won her mandate through the Left because of her personality.
Group membership without party membership?
Meanwhile, parliamentary group vice-president Susanne Ferschl advocated keeping the ten defectors in the parliamentary group at least until January. Ferschl advised the “Augsburger Allgemeine” to respond to a corresponding suggestion from the Wagenknecht Association. Otherwise, more than 100 employees of the previous Left faction, which was threatened with liquidation, would be threatened with dismissal before Christmas, Ferschl explained her advice. “I think it’s definitely possible to work together for a few more weeks,” she said. “These are not our enemies, but were our comrades until recently,” added the labor market expert.
Ferschl sharply criticized the foreseeable loss of jobs among parliamentary group employees. “At that point I’m really angry,” said the labor market expert. She is now faced with having to draw up a social plan for the employees of the Left faction herself. “That really affects me,” said Ferschl.
Wagenknecht relies on separation with decency
Group vice-president Gesine Lötzsch viewed the departure of the ten MPs from the party as a “severe blow for the left”. “But the left has already been declared dead many times. I hope that we will succeed in strengthening the left again,” said Lötzsch to the TV station Phoenix. Lötzsch, who won one of three direct mandates from the Left alongside Gregor Gysi and Sören Pellmann, was confident that there would be parliamentary agreement with the new group around Wagenknecht. “I assume that there will be points where people have similar ideas when it comes to social justice – and then we have to work together.”
Wagenknecht, for her part, advocated an orderly transition. “We should now do this separation with decency and not throw dirt at each other,” she said on ZDF. On ARD she once again made the motives for her project clear. “There is an incredible gap in representation,” she said. “We simply cannot continue as before. Otherwise our country will be relegated. Otherwise it will be unrecognizable in perhaps ten years,” she warned. That’s why a new political beginning is needed in Germany.
“There was less inequality, more security”
In the magazine “Stern” Wagenknecht also explained that, from her point of view, “certain things were better regulated in the old Federal Republic.” “The hunt for profit was socially tamed. Anyone who made an effort could become wealthy. Children were generally better off than their parents. No statutory health insurance patient had to wait months for a specialist appointment. Non-profit providers dominated the housing market. There was less inequality, more security,” said Wagenknecht. There were also people with low incomes, “but not this extreme gap between rich and poor.”
At the same time, she emphasized: “Of course I don’t want to go back to a time when homosexuals had to hide.” The emancipation of women, marriage for all, and raising awareness of racism are also progress.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
