No “one woman show”
Wagenknecht is thinking about founding a party until the end of the year
03/18/2023, 08:48 am
Sahra Wagenknecht does not want to run again for the Left Party. She leaves it open whether the politician will found a new party instead. A decision should be made by the end of the year. One thing is clear: “As a one-woman show, I can’t do that.”
Left-wing member of the Bundestag Sahra Wagenknecht has until the end of the year to decide whether to found her own party. “By the end of the year it must be clear how things will continue,” the left-wing politician told ZDF. The decision whether to found a party or not will be made “within the next nine months”.
Her weighing process also includes the question of her health: “As a one-woman show, I can’t do that.” When asked if she could simply leave the Left Party without founding a new party, Wagenknecht said that many options are conceivable at the moment. You could also imagine a future as a writer and publicist. One thing is clear: “I don’t want to end my political career with a flop.”
Wagenknecht’s rejection of another candidacy for the left had fueled new speculation about a split in the party. She recently caused irritation in her party with her positions on the Ukraine war. In an interview with ZDF, Wagenknecht also said: “The party leadership is pursuing a course that has little to do with my idea of sensible left-wing politics.”
Wagenknecht continued: “Founding a party depends on prerequisites, including those of a legal nature. You have to build structures. The expectation that you could – even if you had made a decision – just launch a party like this, from one week to the next, that would be doomed.”
In addition, young parties should not expect that they will immediately put together a sophisticated party program. “Even with the left, it was the case that the program process only got going when the left already existed,” said Wagenknecht. First of all, it’s about “the basic goals: peace, freedom, social justice”.