Wagenknecht positions future party on AfD and Putin
A party is to emerge from the newly founded alliance of former left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht in the coming months. As she explains in an interview, she wants to target AfD protest voters. She addresses several points on the subject of Russia.
Former left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht wants to target AfD voters for her new alliance, from which a party is to emerge. "I hope that we can convince many voters who voted for the AfD out of protest that our answers and concepts are more serious," she told the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers.
At the same time, she emphasized that she does not want to include any right-wing extremists in her alliance. "With regard to the members, we will take a very close look at who joins us. Right-wing extremists will definitely not have access," she said.
The former top candidate and parliamentary group leader of the Left Party rejected AfD leader Tino Chrupalla's claim that her alliance is "almost one-to-one AfD" in terms of content. "When it comes to economic and social issues, the AfD represents fairly radical market positions," she said. "It is true that the AfD has been calling for uncontrolled migration to be stopped since 2015. Even back then, I thought it was a mistake to leave this issue to the AfD."
Russian gas for "resource-poor" Germany
In the interview, Wagenknecht denies that her new alliance sympathizes with the Kremlin. "Of course I am not founding a pro-Putin party," said the 54-year-old. She ruled out receiving any money from Russia. "The association and the party do not accept donations from non-EU countries, nor are we permitted to do so under the Political Parties Act. If such donations were to come in, we would transfer them back," she said. "Our treasurer also looks closely at the larger donors." Wagenknecht emphasized: "We are not for sale, not from anyone."
Wagenknecht also spoke out in favor of cooperation with Russia on the important issues of the economy and security policy. "As a country with few raw materials, we benefit from this. And Russia is a nuclear power; there can only be security in Europe if conflicts with Russia are resolved diplomatically," she said. "Of course I condemn the war in Ukraine. However, I do not believe that we will end it if we stop buying gas and supply more and more weapons."
Russia had invaded Ukraine to prevent the country from becoming "a military outpost of the United States: with military bases and missile bases like in Poland and Romania", she said. "This does not justify the war, but it shows how it could be ended."
Decision against private freedom
As far as her private life is concerned, the politician admitted that her husband Oskar Lafontaine also had a negative view of her founding the party. "Oskar Lafontaine sees the political necessity for the new party, but also the negative consequences for our private lives," she told the Funke newspapers. "I'm having a pretty exhausting and stressful time now, having to be in Berlin more again, traveling around the country." She added that she could have ended her term of office and then worked as a publicist. "That would have given us a lot of personal freedom. But he understands why I decided differently in the end."
Wagenknecht reported that the 80-year-old no longer wanted an active role. "He has been involved in politics all his life, with all the pressure and stress that entails. Now he is enjoying the fact that he no longer has to," she said. "Of course we consult and he supports me with his experience."
Wagenknecht described herself as resilient - despite her burnout four years ago. "The main thing that wore me down back then was the constant friction and intrigue within my own ranks. As a result, I was less and less able to concentrate on the politically important tasks, and at some point I was simply exhausted and broken," she said. "That doesn't mean that I'm not resilient. I ran the 2017 election campaign with a lot of energy, it was stressful, but it was also fun."
Sahra Wagenknecht mentioned Oskar Lafontaine, her husband, expressing his concerns about her decision to form a new party and the impact it might have on their private lives.
In discussions about cooperation with Russia, Wagenknecht referred to Oskar Lafontaine's political ally, former SPD leader Oskar Lafontaine, who had advocated for closer relations with Russia in the past.
Source: www.ntv.de
