(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
On New Year's Eve 2015–16, 600 women in the western German city of Cologne were victims of various crimes in the square in front of Cologne Central Station and on the steps of the Cathedral. 1600 cases were registered that night – thefts, personal attacks, including around 500 of a sexual nature towards women. The perpetrators were mainly men with an immigrant background.
The event gave rise to renewed debate about immigration and Germany's future. Germany as a modern state today has problems with factors such as a decline in the birth rate, a growing underclass and massive mass immigration from especially Muslim countries.
’Remigration’
The challenge is that both Germanys economic problems due to the country's US-backed involvement in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions against it Russia and the termination of cooperation agreements with the Russians on the supply of gas, means that the high numbers of asylum applications put the German welfare state under massive pressure. This has given so-called 'identitarian' movements wind in their sails in Germany. The term 'Reichsbürgerbewegung' is used for very heterogeneous groups that in one way or another question the historical legitimacy of the German Federal Republic. The AfD – the national-conservative party – ranges from a bourgeois-liberal wing to sympathizers with National Socialist and Fascist political thinking. The party is even proposed to be banned in Germany. Most recently, there have allegedly been secret meetings in the eastern part of Germany, whose political development since the 'turn' in 1989 has been completely different from that in the west. One such 'secret' event in Potsdam, which was leaked by the German newsroom for investigative journalism Correctiv, is said to have involved 'remigration', i.e. the 'return' of millions of people who had previously immigrated to Germany.1
It's here Sahra Wagenknecht comes into the picture. Above all, Wagenknecht gives the many Germans – many of them her former 'compatriots' in East Germany – an opportunity to be heard by a party. These feel Germany's economic problems first hand due to the sanctions against Russia, as well as the overwhelming number of immigrants. They are drawn to the right in the direction of the AfD – which, unlike the 'traffic light government' (Ampel) – wants to face the situation instead of beautifying it with so-called politically correct but unworldly statements.
Sahra Wagenknecht
Sahra Wagenknecht was born in 1969 in Jena in the former GDR as the daughter of a German mother and an Iranian father. She moved in 1976 to East Berlin. She served her Marxist apprenticeship in the PDS, the Party for Democratic Socialism. The PDS is a forerunner of the party Die Linke. From autumn 1990, Wagenknecht studied philosophy and recent German literature at the University of Jena and at the Humboldt University in Berlin and completed his education in Groningen, the Netherlands. Her final thesis was about Karl Marx's interpretation of Hegel. From 2004-09 she was a member of the European Parliament for Die Linke and from 2009 sat in the German Bundestag. She has since trained as a social economist and written several books.
It is not least in light of the war in Ukraine and the immigration debate in Germany that Wagenknecht's development from Marxist to 'conservative socialist' can be understood. The dispute between the wing in Die Linke, which demands greater distance from the AfD, especially this party's immigration-critical voices, and especially since the outbreak of the Ukraine war to Putin's Russia and then the "'Wagenknecht wing' within this party, has lasted at least since 2015 – when Sahra Wagenknecht distanced herself from her own party's support for Angela Merkel. In 2019, Wagenknecht then resigned as faction chairman of the party Die Linke. And on 23.10.2023 it was announced that she – together with 10 others from the party die Linke in the German Bundestag – stepped out of the party and formed her own party. This had already been founded as an association on 26.9, where she, together with Amira Mohamed Ali et al, had founded Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.
On 8.1.24. Wagenknecht's new party was then officially founded with the name The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht# – Reason and Justice (BSW, Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht); although other parties will be named, so don't look directly at Wagenknecht.
AfD and Björn Höcke
Without Wagenknecht's newly formed party, the right-wing national will AfD until September stand for landslide victory in the East German states of Brandenburg, Saxony and the German heartland of Thuringia. In the latter two, the AfD could very easily end up with 35–40 percent of the vote in the upcoming federal elections in the east in September. If the AfD gets the expected support, the strongly right-wing Westphalian, Bjørn Höcke, could risk becoming prime minister in Thuringia. It would be a sensation, since Höcke in particular has been characterized by the German institution for the protection of the state against unconstitutional activity (Verfassungsschutz) as «provably far-right».
The AfD in Thuringia must have violated the dignity of various groups in society through Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and other xenophobic and ultra-nationalist (so-called ethnic) statements.
On 18 April this year, it came before the high court in the East German city of Halle whether the Verfassungsschutz has the legal authority to categorize the AfD in Thuringia as such. The accusations: Höcke is said to have used National Socialist expressions in two speeches. The AfD in Thuringia must have violated the dignity of various groups in society through Islamophobic, anti-Semitic and other xenophobic and ultra-nationalist (so-called 'völkische') statements. The Landsforbund in Thuringia must also have violated the principle of democracy and the rule of law in Germany by trying to cast doubt on whether Germany is a sovereign state and not in fact ruled 'from outside' by various powers. Thus, the AfD must have questioned the legality of the institutions of the German state. If Höcke is convicted, the punishment will in all probability consist of a financial fine.
A new German peace movement
Wagenknecht's efforts will also be crucial in order to prevent an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine towards a major European war – which voices in Germany almost seem to be working to spell the "realization" of. As has been the case from the Commander-in-Chief of Sweden (ÖB), so has German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called on the German population to prepare for an extended European war. Roland Kiesewetter, of the CDU, currently the strongest growing party in Germany, has a past as a staff officer in the German Federal Army and even talks about "carrying the war into Russia", that is, supporting Ukraine with tactical missile systems that can reach strategic targets inside Russia. 2
Perhaps Wagenknecht's fiery speech on 25.2.2023 in Berlin on the occasion of the 'Peace Manifesto' initiated together with publicist Alice Schwarzer3, which at the time of writing has been signed by almost 1 million people, is said to have been the starting point for a new peace movement in Germany.
Wagenknecht is able to speak the truth in the midst of the stiffest headwinds, and above all, she possesses a genuine social commitment to society's weakest. The question is whether she is best as a loner against a headwind, and whether the newly formed party will weaken the 'Wagenknecht effect' in the population. For people like the co-founder Amira Mohamed Ali is pulling BSW toward a more uncompromising stance toward Putin and Russia than Wagenknecht holds. Even so, Wagenknecht is by no means the only skilled politician in BSW, thus especially Sevim Dağdelen (b. 1975), who is the daughter of Kurdish immigrants, has made a name for himself with a book that provides an extremely sharp analysis of NATO's 75-year history.4
1 Se Secret plan against Germany – correctiv.org
2 Se German Defense Minister warns: War in Europe is possible (dagens.se)
3 Se “Revolt for Peace”: Rally in Berlin with Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Schwarzer (youtube.com) and «Petition Manifesto for Peace-Change.org »
4 Se NATO Endangers Security Of The Whole World | German Parliamentarian Sevim Dagdelen (youtube.com)
