By Felix Rupprecht and Peter Tiede
Sahra Wagenknecht (54, independent) still only has a fundraising club with two hands full of ex-left/SED politicians and a millionaire who is supposed to become a party.
But many Germans would already vote for a Wagenknecht party (probably from 2024): according to the flash survey, the Marxist and her troops would get 12 percent straight away!
What the far right achieved with the founding of the AfD, Wagenknecht now wants to do to the far left: reorganize the camp. The historian Andreas Rödder (56, University of Mainz) speaks of the “left-wing AfD”. And left and right there are two women in the front row – AfD co-leader Alice Weidel (44) and Wagenknecht. Both conjure up the decline of Germany. And economic experts warn against both. Your recipes are poison for Germany as a location!
Who is more dangerous for Germany as a business location – Weidel or Wagenknecht? The BILD check!
► Business: Wagenknecht “sounds like Ludwig Erhard at first,” said government advisor and top economist Prof. Jens Südekum (48) to BILD. But when it comes to the economy, Wagenknecht is threatening a toxic mix of planned economy and conspiracy myths! Above all, it causes fear. In that respect it is similar to the AfD. Both rail against large foreign corporations (shattered!) and surveillance and external control.
But: In the end, the recipes are different! The AfD is against subsidies of all kinds – whether from the federal government or the EU. It is best for the state to stay out of the economy entirely. Wagenknecht wants a controlling and redistributing state.
► Social: Wagenknecht also digs into the right-wing fringe when it comes to social issues, says Südekum: “Good wages, but only for Germans – that is compatible with the Höcke wing of the AfD.” Classic narratives from her former party are also used.
Weidel’s AfD is neoliberal, says Holger Stichnoth from the Mannheim ZEW Institute: “Not a small people’s party, but one of the higher earners.” Wagenknecht, on the other hand, deliberately sounds like the old SPD in her slogans: promises of advancement and equality in education. Higher minimum wages.
► Immigration: When it comes to the influx of skilled workers and migration, both are in favor of hard restrictions – and Germans first (jobs, training, apartments).
► Security: When it comes to the prosperity factors of Europe, defense and migration: The two front women from the margins – the Eintracht duo: they become Sahra Weidel and Alice Wagenknecht!
► Europe: Both are in favor of a tough EU dismantling. Wagenknecht wants a “Europe of sovereign democracies”, Weidel a “Europe of fatherlands”. Difference: zero. Unlike Weidel, Wagenknecht wants to get out of NATO (Weidel doesn’t yet) or to castrate it. Both want a security alliance with Putin – and to clear the eastern flank: German soldiers should no longer protect Lithuania.
In summary: Both cover the edges and have large overlaps. The historian Andreas Rödder (56, University of Mainz) described it in BILD like this: Weidel has a national focus, Wagenknecht tries to be more social. Together they are: national-social.