As of: January 29, 2024, 3:16 p.m
By: Moritz Maier
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Press
Split
Fabio De Masi is the leading European candidate for the new Sahra Wagenknecht alliance.
In the interview he talks about Russia, Ukraine and his vision for Europe.
Berlin – Actually he was already off the big stage.
In 2022, Fabio De Masi left the left and announced the end of his political career.
He is now celebrating his big comeback at the first party conference of the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW).
De Masi has big goals.
He wants to fight traffic lights and the AfD and hold large US companies accountable.
Mr De Masi, you have retired from politics, are writing a book and are very busy.
Why the return now?
Germany is at a tipping point.
The traffic light is the AfD's harvest helper.
That is why Sahra Wagenknecht and many people have appealed to my political responsibility.
At the first party conference of the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, Fabio De Masi appeared determined to return to the European Parliament - this time under a new flag.
© IMAGO
As a founding member, you also had responsibility in Sahra Wagenknecht's predecessor model “Stand Up”.
What makes you think that BSW will now be more successful than “Aufgehen”?
Getting up was a blessing in disguise.
We were able to learn how not to do it.
We weren't ready to found a party back then and underestimated the level of support at the time.
This is completely different now.
What is different is that the BSW initially accepts a few members in order not to grow too quickly.
Are you afraid of getting the wrong people on board?
We have often seen how “soldiers of fortune” dismantle parties.
People can apply for admission, but we first have to see: who will come now?
Many people have great hope in us.
We must live up to this responsibility.
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Speaking of responsibility: you talk about standing up against division.
However, BSW representatives usually only share things with others when they appear; concrete suggestions of their own are rare.
There was hardly a financial politician in the Bundestag who made as many suggestions as I did.
This concerns, for example, the prevention of the Wirecard or Cum-Ex scandals or the relief of small and medium incomes.
For many years I have been calling for the debt brake to be replaced by the so-called “Golden Rule”, which would enable loans for investments.
The Governing Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegner (CDU), and the advisory board of the Ministry of Economics have now accepted this demand.
In our European election program you will find demands for tax fairness, up to the conversion of coal-fired power plants to heat storage power plants, sensible management of migration and social protection.
So you stand for suggested solutions and traffic light criticism?
Cutting government spending and increasing consumption taxes in a recession is a crazy policy and economic stimulus program for the AfD.
The editor-in-chief of the British
Financial Times
says that with this policy, Germany currently has the worst performance among the largest economies.
The traffic lights are driving Germany into the wall.
Anyone who doesn't criticize this harshly is politically unnecessary.
You at the BSW also often have to listen to criticism for your positions in the Ukraine war.
You are accused of populism.
In the USA, an exit strategy for the war is now being openly discussed.
If Donald Trump becomes US President again, he will sweep a destroyed Ukraine at Europe's feet.
According to Ukrainian diplomats, a ceasefire was already within reach in March 2022 in Istanbul.
Now the piles of corpses are even higher and Putin is in the foreground.
Ukraine needs security guarantees.
The approach to Russia with NATO and missiles must also be stopped.
Critics of the Afghanistan war have been insulted for 20 years.
But we were right.
You are running as the leading candidate for Europe and the big political issues.
What needs to change in the EU?
Less is more.
There needs to be a minimum taxation for large corporations in order to protect medium-sized businesses from US Big Tech companies.
But you also have to enforce this with thumbscrews, i.e. punitive taxes from Germany and France on financial flows in tax havens.
But the EU should not govern every municipality or undermine collective wages in construction.
The internal market currently primarily serves large corporations.
They want to know again and are back in top politics.
What do you hope to achieve from BSW?
First of all, I hope for a respectable success in the European elections.
We want to offer people who have had enough of the traffic light disaster an alternative to the CDU and AfD.
Both want even more armaments, even lower wages, pensions and investments.
The AfD also threatens people who helped build this country.