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UNEASE AS RUSSIA-FRIENDLY ‘QUEEN OF THE ELECTIONS’ AIMS FOR MORE
GERMAN POLL SUCCESS  
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Kate Connolly in Brandenburg an der Havel
September 17, 2024
The Guardian
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_ While some see Sahra Wagenknecht’s brand of left conservatism as
a xxxxxx against AfD others see reasons to be wary. Some view her as
a potential xxxxxx against the AfD, others point to its
anti-migration rhetoric and Russia-friendly foreign policy _

Sahra Wagenknecht has taken aim at the German government’s stance
on migration and the war in Ukraine., Photograph: Clemens Bilan/EPA //
The Guardian

 

Sahra Wagenknecht is not even on the ballot in the upcoming state
election in Brandenburg. But her face is plastered on billboards
across the sprawling, largely rural northern state that surrounds
Berlin.

There she hopes her fledgling Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) will
repeat the successes it enjoyed in polls
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Thuringia and Saxony earlier this month, where it came third with vote
shares in the double figures, performing so well that it is now a
kingmaker for any possible coalition in either state.

The centre-right is grappling with how it can keep the far-right
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party out of the governments in
those two states, where the AfD took more than 30% of the vote in
each, coming top in Thuringia. With the latest polls
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the same scenario could be repeated on Sunday.

So it is that Wagenknecht, a former communist who once stood on the
periphery as a protest politician, has been thrust into the limelight
as a core player advocating a distinctive brand of “left
conservatism”. And while some see her eponymous alliance as a
potential xxxxxx against the AfD, others point to its anti-migration
rhetoric and Russia-friendly foreign policy as reasons to be wary.

Acknowledging the power she holds, Franz Josef Wagner, the
long-serving columnist of the tabloid Bild, recently referred to her
as a “queen of the elections” who could become “Queen of
Darkness” or “Queen of Light”, depending on which direction she
takes.

“I’m pinning my hopes on her,” said Regine Hirsch, 80, a retired
chemical laboratory technician, who had left a weekly game of cards
with some girlfriends in order to come and hear Wagenknecht speak at
the BSW’s first election rally in the riverside city of Brandenburg
an der Havel.

“Whether everything she says is to be believed, I cannot say,” she
said, rubbing her hands against the chill of an autumn breeze. “But
I’ve always quite liked her, and anything to keep the Nazis out will
be my motto when I go to vote on 22 September,” she added, in
reference to the AfD.

In a passionate 35-minute address to a crowd of about a thousand
people gathered on Brandenburg an der Havel’s market square,
Wagenknecht made brief reference to the BSW’s success “from an
almost standing start” in Thuringia and Saxony, where governments
without it are now almost impossible.

Brandenburg voters could ensure a similar result, she said, “and in
so doing, send a signal to the unspeakable government in Berlin”,
which, she mocked, lived in its own detached capital-city “bubble of
organic food shops, lattes and cargo bikes”.

Laughter and applause rippled across the square. Then Wagenknecht
launched into one of her big campaign themes: Ukraine and the defence
policy of the chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

Speaking to the crowd, Wagenknecht derided the government’s decision
to cut off supplies of Russian gas, blaming the move for Germany’s
cost of living crisis. If she were given the chance, she added, she
would push for a diplomatic solution to Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine. She suggested Vladimir Putin was no more of a warmonger than
the United States.

 
Sahra Wagenknecht has become a key player in regional politics after
elections in Saxony and Thuringia this month.  (Photograph: Christian
Mang/Reuters  //  The Guardian)
To many, such claims are deeply disturbing, redolent of reactionary
anti-western, anti-Nato propaganda. For the historian Ilko-Sascha
Kowalczuk, the BSW and the AfD are “siblings in spirit” – both
populist parties that reject western values. Calling the former
“Putinists” and the latter “fascists”, the author said a vote
for either was an expression of the ancient proverb “the enemy of my
enemy is my friend”.

“Not since reunification in 1990 is democracy and freedom in such
danger as it is now,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In Brandenburg an der Havel, however, the message was going down well
with Cornelia Pelzer, a self-employed businesswoman from a nearby town
who had travelled to hear Wagenknecht speak.

“I’m 150% behind her insistence on pushing for peace,” she said.
“She reflects the consciousness of many other Germans on this score,
which is why she’s so successful. She’s a complete counterpoint to
our war-mongering government,” she added, in reference to the
continued military support the government has given to Ukraine.

Pelzer said she had long been a Wagenknecht fan and had chosen to
follow her when she broke away last year
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the leftist Die Linke party – “who were mired in trench warfare”
– with a band of her supporters to form the BSW.

Manfred Köhler, 67, who spent 45 years as a shift worker at the local
steelworks, admitted he was unconvinced by Wagenknecht and was more
likely to vote for the AfD. “But I live in hope that her lot,
despite what they say, and the AfD will band together,” he said,
sitting on the edge of a flower bed and drawing on a cigarette after
the rally.

Wagenknecht has, like the established parties, ruled out a coalition
between her party and the anti-migration, anti-Islam AfD, although she
has been less insistent about refusing any cooperation whatsoever,
suggesting the two could work together where their party programmes
align. She has been eager to show empathy towards AfD supporters in
the hope of luring them to her BSW, saying many chose to vote for the
party “not because they’re far-right but because they are
furious”.

Obvious overlapping goals include limiting migration, increasing the
deportations of rejected asylum seekers and tightening controls at
Germany’s borders (a step already taken
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the government on Monday). Wagenknecht has said Berlin needs to send
the message to the world that “Germany is overwhelmed, Germany
doesn’t have any more room, Germany is no longer prepared to be
destination number one”.

Köhler said that, as a Brandenburg voter, overwrought public
services, a lack of integration and security were among his main
concerns. “My granddaughter is in the second year of school and over
half the class is not able to speak German,” he said. “All I know
is that this situation can’t continue, and that the established
parties have to be ousted.”

But did he trust parties that had never before held positions of
political responsibility? “If they’re no good, they’ll be out
after five years,” he said. “But you have to give them a chance.
They can’t do any worse than the current lot. And you can’t label
me a Nazi for suggesting it. That’s a cheap shot – that was 85
years ago.”

_[KATE CONNOLLY is the Guardian and Observer's Berlin
correspondent.  Kate Connolly's public key
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* Germany
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* German elections
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* Sahra Wagenknecht
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* Afd
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* Alternative for Germany
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* Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance
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* BSW
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* Die Linke
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* East Germany
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* Nationalism
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* Militarism
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* anti-militarism
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* anti-migration
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* anti-immigrant
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* anti-Islam
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* homophobia
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* transphobia
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* LGBTQ
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* NATO
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* Ukraine war
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* Russia
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* Vladimir Putin
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