Brandenburg: BSW paves the way for the first nationwide coalition with the SPD

The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) has unanimously voted in favor of the coalition agreement with the Social Democrats in Brandenburg. In doing so, the still young party is paving the way for the planned government alliance, which is new in Germany.

All 32 BSW members present voted for the coalition agreement at the party conference in Potsdam. The BSW in Brandenburg says it has 50 members.

“This is an overwhelming leap of faith that you are giving us. We will deliver,” said BSW state chairman Robert Crumbach to the members. Crumbach is to become the new finance minister.

The SPD then wanted to decide on the coalition agreement in Potsdam that evening. Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) is to be re-elected in the state parliament on Wednesday and the new government is to be sworn in around two and a half months after the state elections. The BSW occupies three of a total of nine ministries: the finance, transport and health departments.

“The BSW is needed,” said BSW state leader Crumbach at the party conference. “So that we and our people, our population, are not left out in the cold. That’s what we need in Brandenburg, including in the government.” The path to the coalition agreement was difficult. “There were very, very difficult situations in these exploratory negotiations where I thought: Okay, this won’t work,” admitted Crumbach.

A coalition agreement is always a compromise. “There are things in there that are not our party program. There are also some things in there that I would have liked,” Crumbach added. At the same time, the contract also contains things that correspond to the identity of the party. The BSW, for example, would have liked to occupy the Ministry of Education, which should now continue to be headed by Steffen Freiberg from the SPD. Crumbach also announced that as finance minister he also wanted to work for more East Germans in leadership positions in the government.

From the perspective of federal chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht, the BSW has set an important course for a different policy in the coalition agreement with the SPD. It is important that the BSW has established that the Ukraine war must be ended through diplomatic means, said Wagenknecht at the party conference. “We have the debate about war and peace […] changed in this country.”

Thanks to the BSW, the course has also been set in education so that analogue media is given priority over digital media in primary schools in Brandenburg. “Overall, we have really achieved a lot,” said Wagenknecht, who campaigned for approval of the coalition agreement.

Only the SPD and BSW together can form a majority in the state parliament in Potsdam, as no party wants to form a coalition with the second strongest force, the AfD. In Thuringia, the SPD, CDU and BSW are aiming for a coalition. In Saxony, exploratory talks with the BSW failed – here a minority government consisting of the CDU and SPD is to be forged.