The politician Sahra Wagenknecht leaves the Left and founds her own party. “We have decided to found a new party because we are convinced that the way things are currently going cannot continue,” said Wagenknecht on Monday in Berlin. “Otherwise we probably won’t recognize our country in ten years.” The party is scheduled to be founded at the beginning of 2024 and run for the European elections in June 2024.
Wagenknecht had been considering founding the party for months. A few weeks ago, her supporters registered the association “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – For Reason and Justice”. This should now prepare the founding of the party and collect donations. The chairwoman is the previous parliamentary group leader of the Left, Amira Mohamed Ali. The managing director is the former managing director of the Left in North Rhine-Westphalia, Lukas Schön, treasurer of the millionaire Ralph Suikat.
The association “‘Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – For Reason and Justice’ was founded to prepare a new party,” it said in a written statement. In Germany, people have been “governing bypassing the wishes of the majority” for years. Instead of rewarding performance, the money is redistributed from the hardworking to the top ten thousand. Lobby requests would be served and public coffers would be emptied. An “authoritarian political style” is complained about. Industry and medium-sized businesses are at stake.
“Many people have lost trust in the state and no longer feel represented by any of the existing parties,” the statement continued. Wagenknecht once again sharply criticized the traffic light coalition, which ruled Germany poorly.
Wagenknecht clearly distanced himself from the politics of the Left Party when it came to the issues of immigration and climate protection. “Unregulated immigration” is exacerbating “the problems at schools, especially in poorer residential areas.” She also wants to “move away from blind, haphazard eco-activism that makes people’s lives even more expensive but actually doesn’t benefit the climate at all.”
One of their core concerns is to expand the “opinion corridor” in Germany again, said Wagenknecht. Political debates in Germany are currently being conducted in such a way that “anyone who deviates from the dominant opinion bubble is quickly defamed and stigmatized,” she said. “This is unworthy of a democracy.” Wagenknecht complained about the “pressure to conform” and referred to surveys that show that almost half of the population no longer dares to express their opinion.
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