Sahra Wagenknecht intervenes in BSW internal power struggle

In the party-internal struggle for the top of the Thuringian BSW, the federal chairman Sahra Wagenknecht opened openly against the previous head of state Katja Wolf and her co-chair Steffen Schütz. She is “amazed at the renewed candidacy” of the two, she says that star.

“I had assumed that in Thuringia it had long been consensus to separate party and government office, which also makes sense,” said Wagenknecht.

For the first time, the BSW boss publicly comments on an escalating conflict that endangers the coalition in Thuringia. Wolf is deputy prime minister and finance minister in the cabinet of CDU government leader Mario Voigt. Schütz serves as an infrastructure minister.

Both apply again at the state party conference on April 26 as the state chair. However, there is competition: The member of the state parliament Anke Wirsing and several other wagon knights close to the current state board around Wolf will compete as a team.

The attackers are supported by the federal board. They are “well suited,” said BSW general secretary. “In principle, I think it makes sense to separate the ministerial office and the state presidency,” said the co-chair.

Now Wagenknecht is expressing itself. “We will accept a lot more members in the future,” she says star. “This is also why chairpersons are needed who can concentrate on the party structure.”

Wolf defended himself. “The goal must be to develop a strong member party and at the same time anchor BSW positions in the government,” she told that star. “And that also takes a good mix in a strong and experienced board.”

After the Thuringian state election in September, Wagenknecht had seen a possible government participation critically and partially fought internally. So she always provided new conditions for a government participation that only partially met Wolf and Schütz. Due to the interventions from Berlin, negotiations with the CDU and SPD were facing the end several times. Wolf in particular was partially attacked from the federal board.

It was only when the traffic light government burst in November and the Bundestag election campaign began, Wagenknecht gave up their resistance and even promoted the coalition personally. However, when the BSW narrowly missed its move into the Bundestag in February, the party leader explicitly made it jointly responsible for this: In contrast to Brandenburg, where the BSW is under the SPD, the party had reached little.

Now it is about the next elections, the results of which should decide on the party’s existence. The recognizable strategy of the federal board is to sharpen the party’s radical populist profile before the four state elections up to the next year, in order to move into the parlamations at least in the Eastern countries of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The pragmatic coalition in Thuringia contradicts this course. A Wagenknecht, on the other hand, could show the CDU-led state government again and again-and in the end even force the coalition exit. The probably resulting division of the state association would be accepted as collateral damage.

And so Wolf is again under immense pressure. In addition, the balance of power in the small Thuringian BSW state association is difficult to assess. In an earlier phase of the power struggle in autumn, the federal board had accepted up to a quarter of almost 130 members past the top of the state. This maneuver could now pay off for Sahra Wagenknecht.