The color palette of German politics has taken on a new color: violet. Along with the black of the Christian Democrats, the red of the Social Democrats and the blue of the extreme right, now appears the purple of Sahra Wagenknecht’s young party, baptized “Sahara Wagenknecht Alliance” (BSW). Recognizable by his severe buns and colorful jackets, he left the far-left party Die Linke at the beginning of the year to create his own platform. Political phenomenon of the year 2024 on the other side of the Rhine, political scientists have painted this party with the color violet in an attempt to identify a position that remains difficult to classify: between the red of the left due to its social positions and the blue of the extreme right, for its critical discourse on immigration as well as its proximity to Russia.
The historic parties that are trying to form a majority to govern in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, these three eastern regions whose voters went to the polls on 1Ahem and on September 22, we now have to deal with BSW. Because, two months after these elections, marked by a strong progression of the extreme right, none of the three Länder managed to form a majority.
The far right came first in Thuringia and second in Saxony and Brandenburg, but no party agrees to negotiate with it. Therefore, Sahra Wagenknecht, in third position, is in a position to make or break coalitions. Desiring to make her party a national-scale formation with a view to the legislative elections in September 2025, she has taken advantage of all the benefits she could obtain from her position as an arbitrator to promote what constitutes the “core of [sa] brand “, that is, question support for Ukraine.
Opinion is very divided.
Born in Jena, in Thuringia (former GDR), 55-year-old Sahra Wagenknecht defends the idea that a quick peace is possible between Russia and Ukraine, once Germany stops supplying weapons to kyiv and opposes any deployment of new American missiles on its territory. floor. A rapprochement with Russia would also have, in his opinion, the advantage of reopening the tap of cheap Russian gas supplies, the interruption of which, after 2022, has cruelly penalized the entire German economy.
Although foreign policy issues are not the responsibility of the Länder but of the federal government, the woman who has also been a member of the Bundestag since 2009 demands the presence of an explicit declaration as a precondition for any discussion of a local coalition contract. . According to her, local governments can put pressure on Berlin and influence foreign policy.
You have 49.66% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
