Her party may be less than two months old, but already Sahra Wagenknecht has put a cat amongst the pigeons in Germany. She launched her eponymous party, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) on 8 January this year, a few months after sensationally quitting the left-wing Die Linke party in October over disagreements on the party’s Ukraine and refugee policies, among others. Now, nearly a quarter of Germans now say they could imagine voting for her party at the next general election.

According to a survey conducted by the pollsters Allensbach, 24 per cent of Germans say they could vote for the BSW next year. In the former east Germany, Wagenknecht’s popularity is even higher, with a staggering 40 per cent apparently considering backing the party. While Germany’s federal elections won’t be held until 2024, 7 per cent of Germans would pick Wagenknecht and her party were a vote to be held tomorrow.

The BSW has unnerved Germany’s other parties because it has proven difficult to shoehorn it into a particular political mould

At first glance, polling at 7 per cent may not seem like much. This would place the BSW fifth behind the far more established CDU/CSU, AfD, SPD and Green parties. But the fact that a quarter of the German population say they could vote for Wagenknecht at the next election is beginning to make the political establishment sweat.

They are worried because the BSW’s support base is unusually wide. Men and women are getting behind the party in equal proportions, and it is supported by a mix of ages and levels of education. The BSW seems to be pulling in voters from across the political spectrum. Of those who said they’d back Wagenknecht next year, and who voted in the last federal election, 15 per cent had previously backed the right-wing AfD while 14 per cent had voted for Wagenknecht’s old party Die Linke.

QOSHE - Germany’s new anti-Ukraine party unnerving the establishment - Lisa Haseldine
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Germany’s new anti-Ukraine party unnerving the establishment

5 1
22.02.2024

Her party may be less than two months old, but already Sahra Wagenknecht has put a cat amongst the pigeons in Germany. She launched her eponymous party, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) on 8 January this year, a few months after sensationally quitting the left-wing Die Linke party in October over disagreements on the party’s Ukraine and refugee policies, among others. Now, nearly a quarter of Germans now say they could imagine voting for her party at the next........

© The Spectator


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