BSW founder Sahra Wagenknecht has rejected the ‘firewall’ in German politics that effectively prohibits collaboration between political parties and Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
In a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday, June 2nd Wagenknecht set out her approach to the upcoming elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Saxony-Anhalt, in which she’d welcome a “non-partisan state premier,” among other suggestions.
Left-sovereigntist Wagenknecht’s core concern is that excluding the AfD from participation in the institutions of state—a goal of the ‘firewall’—defies the will of German voters. Where a party receives 30% to 40% of the vote it shouldn’t be permanently excluded, “regardless of one’s stance on the party’s positions.” Hence her denouncing the policy as “idiotic” and “a failure.”
The cordon sanitaire was also criticised for pushing together parties with broadly incompatible political programmes, all with the goal of keeping the AfD out of office. This also explains her call for non-partisan Minister-Presidents as a solution to the same problem arising from state-level elections. The key to Wagenknecht’s recent interview is that she insists, against the firewall, that the will of the voters be respected:
You have to take seriously how people decide and whom they vote for, and you can’t just brush it aside as has been done so far.
