"We have become a power player in Germany," Sahra Wagenknecht said at her first press conference following state elections in Saxony and Thuringia on Sunday. In both states, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party she founded in January came in third.

Now comes the business of forming new governments. And if parties are to do this without the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), as all have pledged, the new BSW could become a kingmaker.

"The people, and I have noticed this on the campaign trail, are putting great hope in us," emphasized Wagenknecht. The success of the BSW shows how few people still trust in the established parties, and how many voters feel let down. The AfD, which has been "confirmed as right-wing extremist" by the domestic intelligence service, has also profited from this sentiment, according to Wagenknecht.

The former Left Party politician focused on one key issue in the BSW election campaign: war and peace, an allusion to Russia's war against Ukraine, in which Germany is supporting Kyiv with weapons. Wagenknecht's party wants to change this.

The problem: Decisions about weapons deliveries or whether to station new medium-range US missiles in Germany are not made by state governments in Saxony or Thuringia, but rather by the federal government and Bundestag parliament based in Berlin. Despite this setback,........

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