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Sahra Wagenknecht: At the party conference, the BSW's program and candidate list for the European elections in June should be finalized

Photo: Clemens Bilan / EPA

At the founding party conference of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), the chairwoman called on her fellow campaigners to unite. The party members are very different, said Wagenknecht on Saturday in Berlin. Among them are 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 advantage, 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," said Wagenknecht.

Wagenknecht continued: »We are not a Left 2.0. This must also apply to our interactions with one another. Let's become a party of togetherness and not a party of intrigue and haggling for positions like everyone else." Structures should be created in the BSW in which it is not the most ruthless and scheming who prevail, but the most talented and best. »Because that’s what we want in society too. Then let's start with ourselves. That's very important, that's what will set us apart from everyone else if we're like that."

A lot of people had expectations and hopes for the alliance, shouted Wagenknecht. “Let us not disappoint these hopes, these expectations.”

The former left-wing politician 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. At the party conference on Saturday, the BSW's program and list of candidates will be finalized for the European elections in June.

Alliance also wants to poach AfD supporters

The alliance also wants to poach voters from the AfD. Politics must be changed, said Wagenknecht. "There's something going on in our society." There's a lot of resentment and also anger.

Anyone who wants to weaken the AfD must raise the minimum wage to 14 euros or more, campaign for higher pensions, affordable energy and hospitals without pressure on returns. The failure of the traffic light policy means that the AfD has reached over 20 percent in surveys and is sometimes the strongest force in some eastern German states. But CDU leader Friedrich Merz as Chancellor is not the lesser evil.

Wagenknecht demanded that the traffic light government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) completely reduce the burden on farmers. In addition, arms exports to Ukraine must be stopped. The government wants to strengthen Ukraine together with NATO partners in its fight against Russia's attack. Wagenknecht said the war could be ended through negotiations, and quickly.

Wagenknecht also criticized the fact that many demonstrations were too quickly placed in the right-wing corner in the media. "The promotion of peace - on the right, the defense of farms - on the right, the criticism of school closings and pressure to conform during the Corona period - on the right, the demand for limiting immigration and concerns about Islamist parallel societies - on the right."

Gysi criticizes Wagenknecht

The left-wing politician Gregor Gysi has meanwhile criticized Sahra Wagenknecht and her new party. It was an immoral beginning for the BSW because ten Bundestag mandates had been “stolen,” Gysi said on Saturday at the state party conference of the Brandenburg Left in Templin. After ten left-wing members of the Bundestag left the party, they did not give up their parliamentary mandates. The argument that most people only voted for the Left because of Wagenknecht is also not entirely true, said Gysi.

"I'm vain, but I would never have dared to give my name to a party." The main opponent of the left is not Wagenknecht's party, but the AfD.

asa/dpa