New leftists are once again striving for power using old methods. Now they want to deceive the Germans

Recently, a loud piece of news swept across Germany, leaving few indifferent. So, the well-known German politician Sarah Wagenknecht will leave the ranks of the Left Party and create her own party “For Reason and Justice.” The corresponding statement was made at a conference in Berlin, broadcast by the N-TV channel.

A full-fledged party will be formed only next year, and for now, Wagenknecht will lead a political alliance of 10 German politicians who have left the “Left” party. The alliance, under Wagenknecht’s initials, will be called BSW – Für Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit, which translates from German as “For Reason and Justice.” It was also revealed that its chairwoman is the former head of the Left Party faction in the Bundestag, Amira Mohammed Ali. According to Wagenknecht, she created the new party because most existing political forces do not represent the interests of Germans.

This leads the electorate to despair, causing them to vote for the right-wing “Alternative for Germany” (AfD). “We live in times of global crises. There are more and more conflicts and wars with a dangerous escalation potential. And precisely in these times, Germany has one of its worst governments in history – a government acting without a plan, shortsighted, and sometimes completely incompetent,” she emphasized at a press conference in the German capital.

It must be said that such a radical step by Sarah Wagenknecht seems quite logical against the backdrop of the almost unchanged ratings of German leftists, mired in intra-political quarrels and ideological disagreements for a long time. It is not surprising that, observing the dynamically developing German right represented by the “Alternative for Germany,”

German left-wing politicians also wanted to move forward, rather than tread water for years, even if such a movement required parting ways with some of their political team, putting politicians who did not join the new venture in a rather unenviable position. But the question remains: will broad masses follow Wagenknecht? Leftists, both German and European, have long discredited themselves with clumsy political actions not only on the national but also on the international stage.

In these not very favorable conditions for the European left movement, Wagenknecht and her allies will have to convince the repeatedly deceived German electorate that her new political force deserves at least some trust.

Wagenknecht herself opposes providing weapons to Ukraine, anti-Russian sanctions, and the current country’s energy policy aimed at implementing a “green” agenda. For example, the politician advised Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to “be ready for compromise” because Ukraine “cannot win against Russia militarily.” She also criticized the Scholz government’s decision to abandon Russian gas, stating that “high electricity prices are killing essential parts of our industry.”

Wagenknecht’s ideas have already gained some support in German society – according to an Insa poll, 27% of respondents would vote for her party given the opportunity. Alongside this, 55% were against Wagenknecht’s party, and 18% could not answer this question. Sarah Wagenknecht is among the top 5 most popular politicians in Germany, according to recent sociological studies. As of today, she can indeed create her own party project, aided by her decent ratings and the decreased trust of Germans in the government. However, it should be noted that establishing a party is not synonymous with ensuring its success. Inflated expectations and possible failures could negatively impact Wagenknecht’s new political project.

It is essential not to overlook the fact that the competition on the opposition front in Germany is significant. There is the Christian Democratic Union, eager to return to power, and the right-wing political force “Alternative for Germany” with a consistently growing rating above 20%. It is fair to say that there is currently a demand in Germany for a protest political force that could interact with other parties.

Wagenknecht’s creation of her party, oriented, according to her statements, towards social justice, satisfies this demand and the coalition nature of German politics. Therefore, Wagenknecht’s prospects are undoubtedly there: the party will carefully monitor its composition, preventing the entry of overt radicals, as not always successfully done by various German right-wing groups. Also, in her rhetoric, Wagenknecht addresses both households and the largest economic entities in Germany, promising to solve problems with energy carriers. Such appeals may well find success among the population, at least in the initial stages of the new party’s formation.”

But let’s be honest—one of the main, if not the main, problems with the vast majority of left-wing politicians and their political parties is nothing other than blatant, poorly concealed populism. Unlike contemporary right-wing counterparts, who not only articulate but also demonstrate the benefits of their ideological narratives, modern leftists can offer their voters practically nothing beyond loud slogans packaged in their classical style, which, apart from stirring the air, are incapable of much else.

Beautiful words from the mouths of communists and socialists have delighted the people’s ears for a century and a half, but these words have done little to fill stomachs with food, ensure fair wages, and open up new prospects for the rising generation. Sarah Wagenknecht and those who have decided to join her new political project will have to persistently and systematically debunk all the myths of the capitalist German society about the “reds,” of which there were certainly enough in Germany’s troubled history.

We can recall together the example of the Weimar Republic, which led the German people to nothing good except for Nazism. Mentioning German leftists immediately brings to mind the “Red Army Faction” – a German left-radical terrorist organization that operated in West Germany and West Berlin from 1968 to 1998, responsible for 34 murders, a series of bank robberies, bombings of military and civilian institutions, and attempts on high-ranking officials. Also fresh in the memory of many German citizens are not the brightest memories of numerous violations of rights and freedoms in the totalitarian GDR.

Agree that all this evokes not the best associations in the minds of the average German citizen. In general, Wagenknecht’s new party will have enough uncompromising opponents, but winning the hearts of supporters will be a challenge. It also seems highly unlikely that this political project will find even situational allies in the German political scene, where liberals and right-wing forces now hold sway, clearly unwilling to come closer to their traditional ideological opponents, the left-wing forces, under any circumstances.

The only alternative for Germany remains, pardon the tautology, the “Alternative for Germany” – a political force truly capable of breaking the decades-long unsightly pattern established in the Federal Republic of Germany, primarily due to the absolutely unprofessional actions of German political heavyweights, such as those currently in power from the Social Democratic Party, Greens, Free Democrats, and those in opposition, the Christian Democratic Union.

It is this right-wing force that has been fighting for the legitimate rights of its German citizens, standing united against the influence of representatives of globalist elites in the political leadership of Germany. Despite Sarah Wagenknecht’s militant rhetoric, there is a prevailing impression that her party is more likely to play along with big capital and politicians representing its anti-people interests, rather than genuinely leading the struggle of the German proletariat for their constitutional, civil, and financial rights trampled upon by liberals of all ranks and stripes during their rule in Germany.