A New Political Party About to Emerge in Germany?

Since the spectacular success of the anti-war rally in Berlin on Feb. 25, co-organized by leading leftist politician Sahra Wagenknecht and leading feminist publisher Alice Schwarzer, there has been much speculation about how this might develop into the creation of a new party. In addition to the 50,000 demonstrators, over 750,000 Germans have signed the manifesto that the two women had released a couple of weeks earlier (cf. SAS 7, 9/23).

If such a party were formed, a Focus poll conducted shortly after the rally found that its voter potential would be up to 20%. Many of the warhawks fear the inroads Sahra Wagenknecht has made into the bourgeois camp, despite the slander campaign against her, extending far beyond the traditional leftist milieus.

Indeed, the Berlin rally showed that the Wagenknecht-Schwarzer team, reinforced by General (ret.) Erich Vad as the other main speaker, resonates with broad layers of the population over and above traditional party politics. They want diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine before it becomes uncontrollable, they are against the sanctions on Russia and, above all, they oppose the role of the Green Party as prime warmonger.

Wagenknecht herself has so far remained vague about the option of a new political party. But she has announced that she will not run for MP from the Linke party in the 2025 elections. From then on, she intends to either work as an author, “or something new will arise politically”.

That “something new”, according to Focus magazine, may come even sooner: “There are many indications that Wagenknecht will run with her own list in the European elections in May 2024 — and thus against her current party.” A Wagenknecht party, Focus believes, would focus on pacifism, “getting out of NATO”, and a “more generous social policy”. Another programmatic cornerstone would be the rejection of “a climate policy that burdens the little people in particular with excessive costs”.

The main flank of attack would be Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock of the Greens, who has become the leading pro-war politician in Germany. Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder of the CSU has called her a “security risk for Germany”. Her just-announced intention to implement “a more feminist foreign policy” was also promptly exposed by Alice Schwarzer, who said the only thing “feminist” about it was the push to give more like-minded women influential posts in her ministry. Her judgement, she being the founder and publisher of Germany’s leading feminist-political magazine EMMA, is certain to have a massive impact.

Finally, we note that the fact that Erich Vad, a general and a former national security advisor to Chancellor Angela Merkel, demonstratively joined hands with Wagenknecht and Schwarzer and signed their Manifesto is a major setback for the war party.