Germany’s favourite “firebrand politician”, Sahra Wagenknecht, has finally launched her long-awaited new party, the awkwardly named Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) – Reason and Fairness. After years of speculation, the German and some of the international media went into overdrive, predicting that the “leftwing conservative” party (Wagenknecht talks about combining job security, higher wages and generous benefits with a restrictive immigration and asylum policy) would “shake up” the German party system and “could eat into the far right’s support”.

But is a party led by Wagenknecht, a former member of the far-left Die Linke (The Left) party, really the “miracle cure” for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)? Based on what we have seen in neighbouring countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands, the chances seem slim that the so-called icon of the German left will rescue working-class voters from the claws of the AfD. In fact, it is more likely that she and her new party will strengthen the far-right agenda.

Sure, Wagenknecht has launched her new party at a perfect time. Germany is heading for its first two-year recession since the early 2000s its national statistics office warned this week. The current three-way governing coalition led by Olaf Scholz is deeply unpopular, with broad resistance building to an expected new round of austerity policies. Scholz’s party, the centre-left SPD,........

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