Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of the left-wing nationalist Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party in Germany is once again demanding that the centre-right CDU change its policy on Ukraine for her party to enter into coalition with them in two eastern states.
“We should finally have a sensible discussion in Germany about how we can end this terrible war in Ukraine, this is causing enormous suffering every day,” Wagenknecht said in an interview on Sunday, October 20th.
She said her party opposes sending long-range German Taurus missiles to Ukraine as well as the deployment of U.S. long-range missiles in Germany—something the hawkish CDU leader Friedrich Merz has advocated for. Wagenknecht said:
If what he [Merz] demanded were implemented, that would mean that Germany would enter into a war with Russia. That is extremely dangerous. If we form a coalition with his party, then of course it must be made clear to our voters that the state governments must clearly distance themselves from such a course and set a different tone.
Wagenknecht’s BSW party, formed only earlier this year after splitting from the left-wing Die Linke, finished third in all three regional elections in the eastern states of Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg in September. The party campaigned on an anti-immigration and anti-war platform, as well as on promises to defend workers’ rights.
The CDU rejects cooperating with the right-wing AfD party, which means it needs Wagenknecht’s party to be able to form a majority in Thuringia and Saxony. In the state of Brandenburg, the Social Democrats (SPD) are the largest party, and only require the support of BSW for a majority.
Wagenknecht believes that the voters clearly signalled their desire for a U-turn in Berlin’s Ukraine policy, as the right-wing AfD, which received around a third of the votes in the three state elections, also campaigned on an anti-war, pro-diplomacy platform.
The left-liberal German federal government has been one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine in the country’s war with Russia and has delivered an array of weapons, including anti-aircraft systems and battle tanks, but has not allowed the supply of Taurus missiles, fearing their use would escalate the conflict.
But CDU leader Friedrich Merz, whose party is on course to win the federal elections next year, is willing to go further, and last week in a speech said that Germany should increase its military support for Ukraine and deliver long-range Taurus missiles to the country.
The deputy chairman of the CDU’s Thuringia branch, Christian Hirte, countered Wagenknecht’s comments by saying that her demands were becoming “more and more adventurous,” and that she was causing a disturbance in the “pragmatic politics in Thuringia.” He added that despite the BSW party leader’s words, the two parties are continuing their discussions about a possible coalition.
However, for official negotiations on forming a government to actually begin between the CDU, the BSW, and the SPD, Sahra Wagenknecht wants a “peace preamble” to be included in a formal coalition agreement in Thuringia. Without clarity on the peace issue, there would be no coalition negotiations, Katja Wolf, leader of the BSW party’s Thuringia branch said.
Thuringia’s SPD leader Georg Maier derided Wagenknecht for making federal foreign policy a part of coalition negotiations. “It’s about Thuringia, d**n it!” he said, explaining that lawmakers have a duty to deal with the domestic issues of the state, not Ukraine.
The three parties have reached a preliminary agreement on excluding any cooperation with the AfD party, which is the most popular party in the state, having won 32.8% of the vote. As the AfD has a blocking minority in the parliament—meaning it can block decisions that require a two-thirds majority vote—the other parties will still be forced to consult with the AfD from time to time.
