As of: February 26, 2024, 10:13 a.m
By: Stefan Krieger
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Sahra Wagenknecht, chairwoman of the newly founded BSW, is open to cooperation with the AfD and CDU.
However, she draws boundaries.
Berlin – The first regional association of the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) party was founded in Saxony on Saturday (February 24th).
In this context, party leader Sahra Wagenknecht does not rule out cooperation with the far-right AfD party on issues.
She emphasized that she only cares about “whether a demand is right or wrong.”
Cooperation with other parties is also conceivable, “certainly also with the CDU”.
Regarding the AfD, Wagenknecht said in the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
that her party would not work “with extremists.”
The Thuringian AfD state leader Björn Höcke is “a right-wing radical.
We do not have anything to do with that".
On the other hand, the AfD federal chairwoman Alice Weidel “does not represent right-wing extremist positions, but rather conservative, economically liberal ones”.
Weidel gave “aggressive speeches, but a ethnic ideology, i.e. the assumption that nations are not constituted by culture but by genes and blood,” Wagenknecht could not recognize in her.
“With Höcke, yes,” continues Wagenknecht.
Sahra Wagenknecht rejects “Fire Wall”.
However, Wagenknecht also sees right-wing radical tendencies within the AfD: “The conservative wing of the AfD is becoming weaker and weaker, the right-wing extremist wing, which includes Europe's leading candidate Krah, is getting stronger.
Ms. Weidel once voted for Höcke to be expelled from the AfD.
Now she is campaigning for Höcke.
But what is much more important is that the vast majority of AfD voters are not right-wing radicals,” said Wagenknecht in an interview.
Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) presenting the campaign of her new party “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht” for the state elections in Thuringia.
© Martin Schutt/dpa
The only thing that matters to them is “whether a demand is right or wrong,” said Wagenknecht, rejecting a “firewall” for the AfD.
The AfD voters are also “the vast majority not right-wing radicals” but are “rightly outraged by out-of-touch politicians,” Wagenknecht continued.
Sahra Wagenknecht for talks with the CDU
Regarding the CDU, Wagenknecht said that after the elections in East Germany, the BSW would enter into talks, “certainly also with the CDU”.
She recalled that the CDU in Thuringia had repeatedly submitted motions to the state parliament, which the AfD then approved.
For her, this is “a normal democratic process”.
A collaboration with the Greens is currently out of the question for Wagenknecht.
The statements were received cautiously in the CDU.
“So far we don’t know what specific content BSW stands for,” said Saxon Bundestag member Christiane Schenderlein to the
Tagesspiegel
.
It is therefore not yet possible to say “whether alliances or cooperation of any kind would be conceivable or not”.
The founding meeting of BSW Sachsen took place in Chemnitz behind closed doors.
The former left-wing Bundestag member Sabine Zimmermann and the entrepreneur Jörg Scheibe were elected as state chairmen, as the deputy federal chairperson Amid Rabieh announced on the Internet service X on Sunday.
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Wagenknecht defends Putin – Ukrainian ambassador with criticism
In the
FAS
, Wagenknecht again denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to destroy Ukraine.
She advocated “freezing the conflict on the current front line.”
Afterwards, the residents of the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian regions were supposed to decide which country they wanted to belong to.
The BSW rejects arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Wagenknecht on Putin: “He says that if Ukrainians want to live in their own state, then they should do that.
And that he wants to negotiate.
You don't have to trust Putin.
But if someone says they want to negotiate, why don’t we try to do exactly that?”
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, criticized this sharply.
“It is criminal to adopt Russian propaganda or to claim that you don’t need weapons to defend yourself,” he told the
Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung
.
Such statements are irresponsible given the current threat situation.
Makeiev pointed out that Putin had repeatedly deprived Ukraine of its right to exist.
No negotiations are possible on this basis, but only “from a position of strength”.
Of course, every war will be ended with negotiations at some point, “but for us it is crucial that Russia takes responsibility for this war.”
Regarding the idea that Kiev could cede territory to Russia after the Ukraine war, the ambassador said: “Would you do the same with your country?
Give up a piece of Germany so that everyone else can have peace again?” Rather, Russia must be held accountable for its war of aggression and the damage caused.
(
skr
/
afp
)