Left leader Janine Wissler has criticized the high additional income of the former parliamentary group leader Sahra Wagenknecht. “When members of parliament earn tens of thousands of euros on the side and even take money from the Swiss financial industry, plus well-paid podiums and lectures in business, that’s a problem,” Wissler told the newspapers of the Funke media group.
Members of the Bundestag should do their work in parliament, in committees and in the constituency, and left-wing politicians should also be present at strikes and protests. “That has to be a priority, that also applies to Sahra Wagenknecht.”
Last year, Wagenknecht earned around 750,000 euros in book and speaking fees in addition to her parliamentary allowances, as was announced yesterday. Of this, however, a good 721,000 euros alone was the gross fee for her bestseller “The Self-Righteous” – a book in which she settled accounts with so-called lifestyle leftists and parts of her own party. The dispute between Wagenknecht and the party leadership over Wissler has come to a head since they announced that they would decide on founding their own party by the end of the year.
