Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance | BSW: New attempt towards the Bundestag

One might occasionally wonder recently what the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance is actually doing. Apart from the persistent demand for a review of the federal election, there hasn't been much to hear from the BSW on a national political level. That changed this weekend – for the first time, the BSW's federal executive board, state chairmen, and EU representatives met in Berlin to discuss the party's prospects after the election defeat .

That such a gathering is taking place for the first time almost a year and a half after the party's founding may seem surprising. But the state associations had to be constituted over the course of the last year. A press release on the meeting in Berlin states that the goal is now to be represented in all eastern German state parliaments by the end of 2026 (elections will be held in Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2026). The long-term goal is to "enter the Bundestag with a strong parliamentary group by 2029 at the latest." The party aims to achieve this by establishing a profile as the "only peace party in Germany" and advocating for a "merit-based, upwardly mobile society" and a reliable welfare state.

However, according to the BSW, this is opposed by "the largest rearmament effort in the history of the Federal Republic," against which there is "no real opposition" in the Bundestag. In this context, reference is also made to the Left Party's approval of the "unlimited arms buildup in the Bundesrat." This refers to the approval of the Left Party's co-governing parties in Bremen and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the financial package for infrastructure and armament, which had also drawn criticism within the Left Party itself. Furthermore, the BSW opposes "the new authoritarianism of the so-called 'democratic center,'" without, however, providing any examples to support this thesis.

In an interview over the weekend, Sahra Wagenknecht declared that she rejects her party's further participation in government. The coalitions in Thuringia and Brandenburg had damaged the party as a whole, she told the editorial network Germany. The BSW, especially in Thuringia, had "partially allowed itself to be ripped off by the other parties" and was now stuck in a coalition with the "old parties." Wagenknecht again spoke out against a firewall against the AfD, arguing that the firewall was "undemocratic stupidity" and ultimately helped the far-right party. If things continue like this, the AfD could eventually govern alone in the east. As a countermeasure, Wagenknecht recommends that the CDU form a coalition with the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt.

The BSW's current main battleground, until further notice, is to demand a review and recount of the federal election at the end of February. The committees of the new Bundestag were recently constituted, including the Electoral Review Committee, to which the BSW can submit its election complaint. The party's constitutional complaints had failed and it was referred to the regular process. Now the BSW leadership is calling on its base to contact the committee members en masse and explain to them the urgency of the matter. Following a partial correction of the election result, the BSW is approximately 9,000 votes short of entering the Bundestag. Final clarity is important not only because both voters and parties have a right to a correct election result, but also because if the BSW were to enter parliament retroactively, the majority situation would change, and Friedrich Merz's coalition government would no longer have a majority. The BSW assumes that it has safely cleared the five percent hurdle. Whether that is true remains to be seen; at least the possibility exists.

Beyond these efforts, the BSW must do what it wanted to avoid this year if possible: laboriously build the party from the bottom up without any significant national political presence. The plan was to pull off a coup using a piece of the Left Party's legacy, but that has failed, at least for now. At least the party founder was persuaded to stay on for a while longer. Now regional and local structures are to be set up and expanded. The founding of a youth organization has been announced for July. There are now significantly more members; the latest figures say there are around 2,600. But the federal executive committee still has control over the selection of members; no one can join the BSW without its blessing. There is resistance to this in the state associations. By the end of the year, it was announced at the weekend, the number of members should be in the five-digit range.

The grumbling at the party's grassroots has become more audible, and not only over the issue of the highly unusual admissions practices. The conflict between the party leadership around Wagenknecht and the Thuringian state association is the most well-known, but not the only, area of ​​contention. It recently became public that a Mainz circle has formed within the party to discuss whether the party is on the right path. Among those present is Thuringian Minister Steffen Schütz, who is one of Wagenknecht's opponents in the dispute over Thuringia's participation in the government and plans to run for the federal executive committee in the next election. The Mainz circle says it intends to work cooperatively with the federal executive committee. It remains to be seen what will come of this. So far, the BSW leadership has sometimes dealt rather harshly with critics within its own ranks, particularly from Thuringia.