Party founded on January 8th
Wagenknecht alliance not ready for elections
December 24, 2023, 5:32 a.m
The founding of the new Wagenknecht party is imminent. However, participation in the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in the fall is far from certain. The alliance is also still lacking donations for the European elections.
According to chairwoman Amira Mohamed Ali, it is not yet clear whether the “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” will run in all state elections next year after the party was founded. According to initial surveys, a good performance in the elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg is certainly possible, said Mohamed Ali during a visit to her constituency in Oldenburg. “But to do this we have to establish regional associations, have a strong list of candidates and be able to finance a good election campaign.” It is questionable whether this will succeed in all three federal states.
For the development of the party, it is initially important to take part in the European elections in June. However, there was still a lack of donations for this, said the former parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Bundestag. The club has so far raised 1.2 million euros. “We can use the money to finance the founding, the first party conference and the first structures. That’s not enough for the European election campaign.” The alliance is hoping for further donations when the party is founded at the beginning of the year.
The long-time left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht left the party with nine members of the Bundestag in October in order to found a competing project. The “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht,” initially organized as an association, is set to formally become a party on January 8th.
Strategy for mobilizing non-voters in progress
There is currently a large representation gap in parliaments, said Mohamed Ali. Many voters did not feel that their concerns and views were represented. The new party particularly wants to offer an alternative to people who vote right-wing in protest. The 43-year-old announced that a strategy was also being worked on to win over non-voters.
Wagenknecht had announced that he would not become chairman of the party himself and brought Mohamed Ali into the mix. If she is elected to the top of the party together with Wagenknecht, she says she would like to work against privatization in the health system. New approaches are also needed in education and migration policy. “It is not a solution to rely solely on migration when it comes to the shortage of skilled workers,” said the MP from Oldenburg. In Germany there are tens of thousands of young people without a school leaving certificate. “We have to properly train children and young people who grow up here and qualify them for the job market. That should be our priority.”