Wagenknecht is still awaiting a decision on the founding of the party

Berlin

Sahra Wagenknecht does not want to make a mistake: the leading left-wing politician does not want to answer the burning question whether she will start her own party for the next few months. “I assume that decisions will be made within the next nine months. It should be clear by the end of the year how things will continue,” the 53-year-old told news site ZDFheute.de. The left party was highly critical of Wagenknecht’s statements.

There is no “one woman show”

In the interview, Wagenknecht gave the reasons for her cautious approach: “To expect that one could—even if one decided—to launch such a party from week to week would be doomed.” Wagenknecht points to the necessary structures, legal considerations, and the fact that it needs a sufficient number of supporters. Any new project can only work with a really reliable team that takes on a lot of things you don’t have talent for. “As a one-woman show, I just can’t do that.”

Strangers with a political craft

Wagenknecht is more than a lonely intellectual warrior who loves to write books. According to her own statements, she finds it difficult to do actual political work. She once said that “controlling the machine” was alien to her – eg driving party friends, maintaining networks, drumming for support at round tables.

“I can also take perspective as a writer and publicist,” she says in the interview. “But I would also like to make a political difference, I will say that honestly.” But before deciding on “such a project,” Wagenknecht wants to make sure it can work. “I don’t want to end my political career in failure.”

I already failed once with “Get up”.

She still remembers the failed attempt to set up a left cross-party caucus. The “Get Up” project, launched in 2018, didn’t catch on.

“New parties always take a risk that not only smart and faithfully committed people want to participate, but also difficult ones.” With “rise” I felt something like this could cause the project to fail.

There is no future in the left party

The politician does not see any future for herself in the Left Party itself. At the beginning of March, Wagenknecht made it clear that she was no longer with the party Bundestag You want to run for office. After this legislative period ends in 2025, there must either be an end to politics “or something new will emerge politically”.

She’s been at odds with her party for years, but they’ve also been at odds with her. On the one hand, Wagenknecht is considered a leading figure on the left and is invited to every talk show, and on the other hand, on controversial issues, she repeatedly deals with the current and against the official course of the party: on refugee policy, she spoke out against open borders, and said she was A skeptic of vaccination when it comes to corona and in her book “Self-Investigators” she settled scores with a part of her party committed to gender and climate change.

Swipe the top left on Saturday across Twitter Wagenknecht’s actions. In the face of war, the climate crisis, inflation and strikes, the party is more in demand than ever. “It is irresponsible to announce that you want to make a decision about forming a rival party within the next few months,” Linke presidents Janine Whistler and Martin Sherdiwan said after a tweet from the party’s press office. “It alienates the thousands of members who are campaigning locally for the left and implement their goals. We call on everyone to reject the efforts of division and to defend and develop DIE LINKE as a pluralistic socialist party.

Offers from AfD

Wagenknecht has also caused offense when it comes to Russia and Ukraine, for example when it accused the federal government of waging economic war against Russia – which is consistent with the choice of words by AfD chief Tino Chrubala. Recently, together with Alice Schwarzer, she campaigned for negotiations and settlements “on both sides” with a “Manifesto for Peace” and mobilized thousands in Berlin for a large demonstration. Wagenknecht received an invitation from the chairman of the Thuringian AfD, Bjorn Hook AfD to enter

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