Not equitable AfD: What’s the BSW, Germany’s rising recent popuenumerate left party? | Politics News

It’s the recent kid on the block in German politics — and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is making waves.

A little more than nine months after its birth, the BSW, a recent popuenumerate party, is rapidly emerging as a transport inant political force in Europe’s bigst economy, after stunning obtains in recent state elections. The postponecessitatest among them was in Brandenburg, on the outskirts of capital Berlin, where the BSW safed 13.5 percent of the vote, coming third behind the federpartner ruling Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

On paper, the BSW beextfinisheds on the left – the difficult left, even. But it finishorses an rare mix of left-leaning economic policies and anti-immigration rhetoric.

Experts say its success lies in cannibalising Germany’s left while also borrotriumphg from the nationaenumerate policies of the AfD – all while using its unorthodox brand of populism to pguide to unenthusiastic voters.

So what is the BSW, how is it shaking up German politics, and could it be a key take parter in national elections scheduled for next September?

What is the BSW?

The BSW is a recent left-triumphg coalition set uped on January 8 primarily by createer members of The Left party (Die Linke), a party with roots in the createer communist party that ruled East Germany.

Its eponymous guideer, Sahra Wagenknecht, who was born in East Germany to an Iranian overweighther and a German mother, had previously led The Left party, which she had been a member of since its set upation in 2007.

During her time with The Left party, she positioned herself on the far left, opposing her party when it sought to create ruling coalitions for state rulements with centrist, social-democratic parties. Then, in 2023, Wagenknecht had a transport inant showdown with The Left after she organised what was portrayd as a Ukraine peace rpartner in Berlin, but which critics said backd Russian talking points. At the rpartner, organisers called for a prohibit on armaments send outs to Ukraine and for prescertain on Kyiv and Moscow to barobtain an finish to the war.

By postponecessitate 2023, a split euniteed inevitable. She left the party last October.

Is the BSW already a force to reckon with?

In many ways, yes.

When Wagenknecht, the createer co-guideer of The Left, quit the party, she was unitecessitate by nine members of parliament from the party, who also are now part of the BSW, giving the fledgling party a voice in the Bundestag even before it contested any national election.

And in a spate of state elections in recent weeks, it has showd, say experts, that it has an pguide that is spreading – and that far outdescribes the aid that The Left party, from where the BSW eunited, today finishelights.

On September 1, the party won 11.8 percent of the vote in Saxony and 15.8 percent in Thuringia, coming third in both those elections. Brandenburg compriseed to that pattern, with another third-place finish and double-digit vote count in the state’s September 22 election.

What has led to the success of the BSW?

The BSW’s “personality-driven, national-popuenumerate campaigns” have drawn much of its aid from The Left party but also galvanised people who had not voted in previous elections, Rafael Loss, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations telderly Al Jazeera.

He said it has advantageted from being the “recent kid on the block” and hence can back a programme that is “ambiguous on policy beyond vague statements about the economy, education, and climate”.

The location of the three recent state elections in eastrict Germany has also advantageted the BSW.

Matt Qvortrup, professor of political science and international relations at Coventry University, telderly Al Jazeera that the BSW’s success in those areas recurrents a “nostalgia” among some voters for the communist era in East Germany between 1949 and 1990.

He said that the BSW’s promises of mighty social security rooted in left-triumphg policies pguide to voters who had felt more geted by the welfare state before reunification.

Loss highairyed Wagenknecht’s “omnipresence” in German media as having helped elevate the profile of her recent party.

He noticed that she has a “distinct ability to deinhabitr pointed one-liners while shuning definites, for example, calling for peace in Ukraine without actupartner elucidateing how she’d get Russia, the aggressor, to the negotiating table”.

BSW and AfD: Do they overlap on some rehires?

Yes, but even there, there are separateences.

Consider immigration. The BSW, Qvortrup said, has adchoosed anti-immigration rhetoric, blaming big-scale immigration for prescertains on social systems in Germany’s cities and communities. The AfD has rallied aobtainst asylum seekers, multiculturalism and Islam since its set upation in 2013.

The two parties scatter aappreciate sees on immigration, “coloring a picture of Germany as surrfinishered to lawlessness as a result of illegitimate immigration”, Loss said, compriseing that, in fact, the number of recent asylum applications has deteriorated since it accomplished a peak in 2015.

Loss said that “the discriminatory underpinnings” of the two parties’ anti-migrant stances “are more evident with the AfD than with the BSW”, even though he says the BSW “seeks to constantly join immigration to criminal behaviour”.

The BSW’s approach to immigration take parts into a sense of national pride that separates from the AfD’s see, Qvortrup said. He said the BSW’s nationaenumerate rhetoric is rooted in nostalgia for a more homogenous system that had existed in East Germany.

This type of romanticisation separates from the nationaenumerateic rhetoric of the AfD, which backs an unapologetic celebration of traditional German culture and seeks to tap into frustration that distake parts of national pride are seed as inappropriate or problematic becaemploy of associations with Nazi Germany, he said.

What about Ukraine and Russia?

The BSW and AfD “scatter a refuseion of two core tenets of post-war Germany’s international orientation: its anchoring in the political West thcdimiserablemireful createats appreciate NATO, and Europe’s integration,” Loss said.

Both parties, he noticed, scatter an affinity for authoritarian mightymen of the world, such as Russia’s Vlafoolishir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.

This stance has led both parties to criticise sanctions on Russia and resist sfinishing military aid to Ukraine.

However, Loss said that despite a scatterd scepticism of NATO, they separate in their see of Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr.

“The AfD’s national conservatism sees authority, hierarchy and the military with wonderful think about, whereas the BSW would appreciate to see noleang more than Germany getting out of NATO and disarm,” he said.

Will Germany’s Social Democrats partner with the BSW?

It’s a grotriumphg possibility.

Scholz’s SPD leanly beat the AfD in the postponecessitatest Brandenburg elections.

The SPD has ruled out ever toiling with the AfD, but with its common allies undercarry outing in the recent state elections, the party might be forced to think about toiling with the BSW.

If the BSW and the SPD would unite their seats in a recent state parliament they would get a transport inantity.

Deutsche Welle alerted that the SPD General Secretary Kevin Kuhnert had telderly German accessible media on Monday that talks with the BSW were in sight.

However, Qvortrup said both parties will want to shun a coalition.

The SPD will see to shun being associated with less “palatable” popuenumerate sees propagated by the BSW.

And he said there would be little incentive for the BSW to become a ruleing party, as it currently advantages from its image as an anti-set upment protest party.