The Sahra Wagenknecht alliance wants to present itself at a party conference for the first time and gain momentum for the 2024 election year. The BSW’s program and list of candidates for the European elections in June are to be finalized in the Berlin Kosmos cinema.
The draft program sharply criticizes the European Union and calls, among other things, for a departure from the previous EU climate policy. Europe expert Guntram Wolff from the German Council on Foreign Relations is very skeptical about this. The Left also criticizes the line of the new rival party.
The former left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht founded her party on January 8th with around 40 people and accepted the first 450 members. The 54-year-old is co-chairwoman, together with the former left-wing parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali. Both will speak at the party conference.
Wagenknecht: Talking about social inequality
Sahra Wagenknecht calls on her fellow campaigners to pull together. The party members are very different, said Wagenknecht. These include trade unionists, entrepreneurs, nurses, police officers, theologians, city dwellers and villagers. The party will only be successful if the members see this “difference as an asset, if we not only demand tolerance and respect in society, but also live it here in our party. That must be our mission and that must be our goal.”
Wagenknecht continued: “We are not a Left 2.0. This must also apply to our dealings with one another. Let us become a party of togetherness and not a party of intrigues and post-trading like everyone else.” Structures should be created in the BSW in which it is not the most ruthless and scheming who prevail, but rather the most talented and best.
The issue of social inequality will be one of the priorities of the new Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party. Wagenknecht said: “We have to talk again about social inequality (…), about the expropriation of the hardworking.” There are more and more professions that would previously have enabled modest prosperity. And in which the incomes today are such that with them you never have the chance of a halfway good life, of a minimum level of social security, of solid family planning or even of your own house. “That has to change again in our country,” said Wagenknecht.
Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance in Europe
The top candidates for the European elections are to be the former left-wing MEP Fabio De Masi and the long-time SPD politician Thomas Geisel, former mayor of Düsseldorf. The draft of the European program states: “The EU in its current constitution is damaging the European idea.” Among other things, what is criticized is the EU technocracy’s “regulatory frenzy”.
If necessary, Germany should not adhere to EU rules, it goes on to say: The BSW advocates “the non-implementation of EU regulations at the national level if they run counter to economic reason, social justice, peace, democracy and freedom of expression.”
Specifically, there is a demand to abolish trading in CO2 certificates. “This certificate trading is completely unsuitable for achieving climate policy goals,” says the draft. This also calls for the unlimited use of combustion engines and a return to imports of oil and gas from Russia.
“Europe must become an independent actor on the world stage, instead of being a pawn in the conflict between the great powers and a vassal of the USA,” says the draft. And further: “The war in Ukraine is a bloody proxy war between NATO and Russia.” The war was “started militarily by Russia, but it could have been prevented by the West and could have been ended long ago.”
Criticism of suggestions: “Factually simply wrong”
Europe expert Wolff, who worked for the Bruegel think tank in Brussels before joining the DGAP, critically assessed a number of the proposals. “In fact, it is simply wrong that trading in CO2 certificates is of no use,” said Wolff to the German Press Agency.
“Scientific studies clearly show that emissions trading reduces greenhouse gases. When something becomes more expensive, people try to use less, every economist knows that.” The increase in the price of fossil fuels promotes innovation because it is worth investing in new technology.
“I think the demand to disregard EU rules if necessary is dangerous,” Wolff continued. “If current law is no longer implemented everywhere, it would destroy the internal market and cause immense damage to the German economy. The internal market only works if everyone adheres to the jointly agreed rules.” These EU rules would be drawn up democratically by the European Parliament and the governments of the 27 member states, which could represent their national interests.
“Backwards Project”
The Left, with which Wagenknecht broke in October after decades of membership, also did not take kindly to the BSW’s ideas. “It is becoming apparent that this will be a backwards-looking project of the past,” said acting Federal Managing Director Katina Schubert to the dpa. The BSW is calling for the dismantling of the EU and “a Europe of sovereign democracies”. What is needed, however, is more cross-border cooperation – not less.
“If you want a fair Europe, you have to take it away from the corporations and not compete with right-wing populism to destroy it,” said Schubert.
