Status: 24.10.2023, 14:29 PM
By: Max Müller
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Sahra Wagenknecht will found a party and participate in elections. Will the "Last Generation" find a political home? In any case, there are interfaces.
Berlin – It's 8:12 a.m. on this Monday morning when the climate activists of the "Last Generation" send out a press release. Four prominent university buildings will be sprayed with paint today. It is not yet known what these are at this time. Later, the glass façade of the Audimax of the University of Hamburg is sprayed with orange paint. The addressee of the action is not in Hamburg, but in Berlin. "Mr. Scholz, you always emphasise how important respect is to you! So I think it's pretty disrespectful of you to lead my generation into a world that's so much worse than the one you once found," said one of the activists.
A few minutes later, Sahra Wagenknecht steps onto the stage of the Federal Press Conference in Berlin. The former parliamentary group leader and nine other loyalists announce their resignation from the Left. With a new party, which is to emerge from the association "Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht" (BSW) at the beginning of next year, the 54-year-old wants to run in elections in the future. Wagenknecht is also addressing Scholz's government. She once again sharply criticizes the traffic light coalition, which she says governs Germany badly. Politics is being made against the citizens. A narrative that is also represented by the "Last Generation".
The board members of the association "Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – For Reason and Justice" (from left to right): Lukas Schön, Amira Mohamed Ali, Sahra Wagenknecht, Ralf Suikat and Christian Leye stand next to each other in front of the press conference for the founding of the association. © Soeren Stache/dpa
Sahra Wagenknecht founds party: Overlap with "Last Generation"
Radical, authoritarian, populist: these are attributes that are familiar in both camps. So is it possible that what belongs together is growing together? After all, there are interfaces when it comes to central political demands. For example, it is about redistribution, inheritance and wealth tax, as Wagenknecht explained. The "Last Generation" also targets the "symbols of modern wealth" and wants to "draw attention to the reckless waste of the rich," according to the group's "Summer 2023 Plan." The result: smeared yachts, private planes, luxury shops and hotels. Both groups stress that it is about the obscene excesses of wealth, not about single-family homes.
So far, Sahra Wagenknecht is not really convinced of what the "Last Generation" is doing. In response to their protests, she told Die Welt last November that the activists' behavior was "destructive." "You can glue yourself in front of the Green Party headquarters, but please don't do it on motorways," says Wagenknecht. The fact that the Greens do not solve the climate problems is the view of both BSW and "Last Generation". Because the climate activists have not found a home in the party either, as they repeatedly assert.
Own party for "Last Generation"? "It's too late for that"
The fact that the "Last Generation" itself is founding a party has been discussed again and again, so far without any reliable result. "It takes a long time to successfully establish a party. This does not fit with the main argument of the 'Last Generation', according to which time is extremely urgent in the climate crisis. It will then be too late for the long march through the institutions," protest researcher Dalilah Shemia-Goeke told our editorial team in April.
But there could now be a solution for exactly that. The climate activists continue their protest, and Wagenknecht sets up her party. According to polls, it is considered to have a voter potential of up to 27 percent. Will the BSW become the political home of the climate glue? Where are the differences – and where are the similarities? Questions that IPPEN. MEDIA of the "Last Generation". No response was received by the time of going to press.
Possible supporters of Wagenknecht: Differentiation to the right
Who will be part of the new Wagenknecht party was also a topic of the press conference. After all, Wagenknecht is repeatedly accused of being close to the AfD. They want to grow in a controlled manner and pay attention to "soldiers of fortune, careerists and people with political views that you don't want to be part of," said Christian Leye, a member of the Bundestag and the new deputy chairman of BSW. Sahra Wagenknecht made it clear: "Anyone who shares our program and wants to support us constructively will have the opportunity to do so. We're going to make sure they're not the wrong people." This can be read as a demarcation from the right – but also as an invitation to the "Last Generation".
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In any case, an alarming figure suggests that there is still a lot of room in the German party system. When asked which party had the greatest competence to solve Germany's biggest political problems, a full 2023 percent answered none in a Forsa survey at the beginning of 57. In other words, more than half of citizens have little confidence in the problem-solving skills of existing political parties.