Applications rejected without justification
Wagenknecht party limits number of its members
February 3, 2024, 7:09 p.m
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The board should decide who can join Wagenknecht’s new party. Switching directly from the AfD should probably not be possible. Wagenknecht himself wants to get to know future party members first. There should be no more than 2,000 by the time of the federal election.
Sahra Wagenknecht’s new party does not want to have more than around 2,000 members by the 2025 federal election: This was reported by “Spiegel”, citing party circles. However, the number is not a fixed upper limit, but should be understood as a guideline. The party currently has around 450 members and should have around 1,000 by the end of the year. According to the report, the BSW already has thousands of membership applications. Wagenknecht had repeatedly made it clear that their goal was controlled growth. It’s about getting to know potential members first.
Last week, according to “Spiegel” information, the BSW leadership discussed further party development at a closed meeting in Berlin. According to the party law, the rejection of a membership application does not require any justification. In the Wagenknecht party, decisions about the admission of members should be a matter for the board until further notice.
Wagenknecht wants to be careful with new members without issuing any bans. Previous AfD membership should not be a formal exclusion criterion. At the same time, Wagenknecht emphasized: “There will be no direct change.” The new party was founded at the beginning of the year. Your MPs in the Bundestag have had group status since Friday.
“It will not be the case that everyone who submits an application for membership will immediately become a member. We want to view and process the applications,” said the co-chair of the BSW, Amira Mohamed Ali, in an interview with ntv.de. The initial focus is on establishing BSW regional associations in all federal states so that the party can compete in the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September, said Mohamed Ali. “We will definitely grow, that’s what we want – we’re happy when people come to us. But that should happen little by little and will depend very much on how quickly we manage to build up the structures in the countries,” added her.