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Party leader Wagenknecht on February 20th in Berlin: donations from “very, very many people”

Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa

The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), the new party of the former left-wing politician, has received a large sum of money from an association that Wagenknecht set up before founding the party.

Party experts criticize the procedure.

The new alliance has reported a major donation to the Bundestag administration.

Accordingly, the new party received 80,463.64 euros at the beginning of February.

Donor: the association »BSW – For Reason and Justice e.

V.”.

Wagenknecht and her colleagues founded this association last fall to prepare for the founding of the party.

The first call for donations for Wagenknecht's movement followed on the club's website.

Now the association is apparently passing on sums to the party.

It is not clear where the money originally came from.

The “Berliner Zeitung” first reported on the large donation on Friday morning.

»More than 23,000 donors from all levels of our society«

The party researcher Sophie Schönberger had criticized the association's structure early on: "If the BSW association itself states that it wants to collect money to found a party, it seems like a large-scale project to specifically circumvent the regulations of party financing law." Schönberger told SPIEGEL.

When asked, BSW treasurer Ralph Suikat explained that the accusation that the association's donations were concealing the original donors had "no basis at all."

It was made clear from the start "that we in the association collect donations under the legal conditions of a party."

The approximately 80,000 euros are money from “more than 23,000 donors from all levels of our society.”

Suikat also said that the association had already covered the party's costs, for example for advertising materials.

However, these would not have exceeded the 50,000 euro limit, which is crucial for an immediate report to the Bundestag administration.

All donations from the association to the party “were or are being checked by an auditor and made transparent to the Bundestag administration.”

When asked why the association acted as a donor, Suikat replied that certain material costs had to be covered for the party - including expenses for the founding party conference.

“I can absolutely rule out the possibility that we are being financed from dubious sources.”

Wagenknecht is criticized by political opponents for her pro-Russia positions.

The origin of donations for your new party is therefore particularly in focus.

Those responsible for the association always publicly emphasize that the donations are checked meticulously and that no large donations have arrived from Russia.

In recent weeks, Suikat has tried to provide transparency about donations to date.

“I can absolutely rule out the possibility that we are being financed from dubious sources,” said Suikat in a ZEIT interview.

In addition, a large donation of one million euros from a publicly unknown couple in January caused a stir.

When Wagenknecht was asked at a press conference in Erfurt this Friday about her party's financing and the current donations, she replied that the BSW was constantly taking in money and didn't want donations from large corporations.

Her party receives numerous donations “from very, very many people who obviously really don’t have much income,” said Wagenknecht.