It has long been evident that there are similarities in the political programmes of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). When it comes to inciting hatred against migrants and strengthening domestic repression, the two parties hardly differ at all. But now the BSW is going a step further and offering the far-right party political cooperation.
On June 26, Wagenknecht’s party sent a letter to “Dear Dr Weidel” and “Dear Mr Chrupalla,” the two co-chairs of the AfD. The letter is signed by BSW co-chairs Fabio De Masi and Amira Mohamed Ali, as well as by Secretary-General Oliver Ruhnert. After the Bild tabloid and Der Spiegel magazine had reported on it, the BSW posted the letter on its website.
It begins by stating that the BSW has always criticised the “firewall” against the AfD—that is, the refusal to cooperate with it at parliamentary and government level. “It is undemocratic and does not solve any problems,” the letter states. This is followed by a series of proposals on how cooperation between the BSW and the AfD could be structured in the future.
The BSW offers to jointly set up “committees of inquiry into the Nord Stream pipeline explosion, the Covid-19 pandemic or the mask deals involving Jens Spahn (Christian Democrats, CDU),” should the BSW manage to enter the Bundestag following a recount of last year’s federal election, when the BSW narrowly fell short of the 5 percent hurdle for parliamentary representation. “As a matter of principle, we always decide on the merits of the issue and not on the basis of who tables the motions in parliament,” the letter states.
Following this rather hypothetical proposal, the letter turns to its main concern: the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, which are due to take place in September. The AfD currently leads by a wide margin in the polls in both states, while the BSW is hovering around the 5 percent threshold.
Wagenknecht’s party offered the AfD cooperation during the election campaign and proposed a way to include it in government after the election. The BSW’s electoral goal is “to oust the incumbents and replace them with non-partisan Minister-Presidents who govern in the state parliaments with shifting majorities, with the involvement of the AfD,” the letter states. Saxony-Anhalt is currently governed by Sven Schulze (CDU) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania by Manuela Schwesig (Social Democrats).
The BSW is therefore prepared to elect a Minister-President who governs with the support of the far right and may even include AfD ministers in their government. It goes without saying that such a “non-partisan” Minister-President would have to be largely in agreement with the AfD in order to secure its support. And if the BSW is prepared to support a “non-partisan” Minister-President backed by the AfD, why not a Minister-President from the AfD itself? That would then be just a small step further.
In the election campaign, the BSW proposed joint appearances by Sahra Wagenknecht and Alice Weidel: “A controversial debate in a large market square in the east of the country between the best-known faces of two parties that, for different reasons, are opposed by the mainstream. You, Alice Weidel, versus Sahra Wagenknecht.” Specifically, the letter recommends “one event in Magdeburg and one in Schwerin—two duels with home and away legs.”
The letter attempts to portray this as a way of revitalising democracy. Since public service broadcasting has “degenerated into a propagandistic state broadcaster” (because it no longer invites Wagenknecht onto talk shows as often as it used to!), the party must “take the debate into its own hands”: “Such a debate would make it possible, beyond the familiar election formats in which our leading candidates in the federal states face off, to bring the political debate back into the heart of society with two women who fill halls and market squares.”
What utter nonsense. A fascist party does not become democratic simply by debating in market squares. Such a debate would elevate Weidel and the AfD. As the letter explicitly states, the BSW’s aim is not to expose the AfD in debate but to help it gain a share in government.
The letter goes on to say: “There are significant differences between our parties.” It lists some of them: “We believe that the AfD’s endorsement of the federal government’s rearmament policy and its close ties to US President Donald Trump are not in Germany’s interests”; “we want to tax billionaires and extremely large inheritances appropriately; the AfD rejects this”; the AfD “rightly criticises the ever-narrowing corridors of opinion”, but also wants to “interfere in universities and schools”; etc.
But this merely shows that the BSW knows exactly who it is getting involved with. The AfD is a far-right, partly fascist party that represents the interests of the most parasitic capitalist circles. It is not for nothing that it is supported by Donald Trump, JD Vance and Elon Musk, the richest man in the world.
The AfD’s aim is to establish an authoritarian dictatorship, just as Trump is attempting to do in the US, in order to suppress any form of social and left-wing opposition. Its smear campaign against migrants serves to divide the working class. Just as the Nazis once branded the Jews as scapegoats for all of society’s ills, so the AfD does the same today with Muslims and migrants. In doing so, it is supported by all the established parties, which are implementing their migration policies, pouring hundreds of billions into rearmament and slashing social spending.
If the AfD has, to some extent, succeeded in exploiting anger at the ruling elites for its reactionary ends, then the main responsibility for this lies with the Left Party, which spouts left-wing rhetoric during election campaigns only to implement right-wing, anti-worker policies once in government. The AfD is riding the wave of frustration that the Left Party has itself generated. In the eastern German federal states where the Left Party was part of the governing coalition or—as in Thuringia—provided the Minister-President, the AfD is now the strongest party.
Wagenknecht was a leading member of the Left Party and its predecessor, the PDS, for 34 years. She supported these policies before resigning in October 2023 and founded her own party. Now she is going one step further, transforming from a pioneer of the AfD into its coalition partner. Żaklin Nastić, a former Member of the Bundestag and a close confidante of Wagenknecht, even sought to take up a post directly as policy adviser in the office of AfD leader Tino Chrupalla. The attempt failed only due to resistance from within the AfD’s own ranks.
Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla have responded to the BSW’s letter. While they did not address the proposal for joint campaign appearances, they did express openness to talks with the BSW. “As the AfD, we are, of course, in favour of dialogue and democratic exchange,” both stated on Wednesday in Berlin. “That is why we view this initiative positively in principle.”
Developments surrounding Wagenknecht confirm the WSWS’s assessment that the Left Party and related organisations in other countries are not left-wing but pseudo-left parties—parties which, under the guise of left-wing rhetoric, defend the existing capitalist order and treat any genuine oppositional movement from below with hostility.
In Wagenknecht’s case, this stems from her Stalinist roots. She joined East Germany’s ruling Stalinist Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1989 at the age of 19, at the very moment when millions were taking to the streets against it. She remained in the party when it supported German reunification and the restoration of capitalism and renamed itself the PDS. As spokesperson for the Communist Platform, she became the mouthpiece of the old Stalinists within the party.
In the early 2010s, Wagenknecht discarded the writings of Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg, to which she had previously and falsely referred, and sang the praises of post-war West German capitalism. In 2016, she published another book in which she promoted the neoliberal values of “freedom, personal initiative, competition, performance-related pay and the protection of self-earned property.” This was followed in 2021 by the nationalistic hate-mongering Die Selbstgerechten (The Self-Righteous), which railed against cosmopolitanism and openness to the world and denounced migrants and refugees as wage-cutters, strikebreakers and culturally alien elements.
The move towards the AfD was therefore predetermined. The fact that the BSW is now openly seeking to collaborate with the far right is linked to the deepening crisis of capitalist society. Social tensions have reached such a level of intensity that there is no longer any room for half-measures, forcing parties to openly show their true colours.
Hundreds of billions of euros are being poured into rearmament and war, while cuts are being made to wages, social spending and pensions, as well as to health and education expenditure. Wealth at the top of society has reached staggering proportions, as millions are barely making ends meet. Young people are being forced into military service, and state surveillance and repression are on the rise. Resistance is developing in response to this, to which the Wagenknecht party is reacting by throwing itself into the arms of the AfD.