BSW Newsletter, 27 February 2025
After the German General Election.
[LA notes: BSW gained 4.97% of the popular vote. They need 5% to qualify to enter the Bundestag. Note how unique they are: the only socialist, non-authoritarian, non-imperialist party in German politics.]
This is the newsletter of Sahra Wagenknecht, Member of the German Bundestag. In it, I provide weekly information about my activities and current political topics.
The federal election is over. We fell short of getting into parliament by about 13,400 votes. That was close! But almost 2.5 million voters also placed their trust in us, including half a million former non-voters. That was more votes than we received in the European elections.
4.97 per cent: this is the best result ever achieved by a new party in its first appearance in a federal election. And that is why the BSW will continue! We owe it to the millions of voters and supporters who have worked to the point of exhaustion in the last few weeks for the success of the party. I thank you all very much for your commitment!
There are at least three reasons why the BSW is urgently needed:
1. We are the only consistent peace party that opposes the insane rearmament plans!
2. We are the only party that advocates both social justice and the necessary limitation of migration.
3. We are the intrepid defenders of freedom of expression, fighting the rampant authoritarianism in ALL political camps.
Stop war credits!
The Bundestag election has barely ended, and the CDU/CSU and SPD are already negotiating a special fund of 200 billion euros for rearmament – and the Rheinmetall share price is skyrocketing. I find it extremely disrespectful of the voters that Merz and Scholz and Habeck now even want to use the majorities in the Bundestag, which has already been voted out, to squander hundreds of billions on rearmament and weapons for Ukraine! The fact that Bodo Ramelow is calling for the Left Party to work with a federal government led by Friedrich Merz shows why everything has been set in motion to prevent the only consistent force for peace from entering the next Bundestag. With us, they knew that we would always refuse such war credits. This is another reason why the BSW will continue to be needed in the future.
The great deception of the electorate
Just because Trump and Putin are now negotiating a deal, the danger of a major war in Europe is not gone. The arms race is getting even crazier. Because it is already clear that the US wants Europe, and above all Germany, to bear the costs and risks of securing a ceasefire in Ukraine. The costs for German taxpayers will be enormous. And it gets even crazier: all the other parties do not rule out sending German soldiers to the powder keg of Ukraine after a ceasefire. If the fighting were to flare up again, we would be in direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.
Final round of the Bundestag election
If you want more social justice and not – like the FDP, AfD and CDU/CSU – an increasingly competitive society in which only the rich can afford good health care and education;
If you want peace and détente and do not want to supply weapons to crisis areas and certainly do not want to risk a direct war with Russia – like the CDU/CSU and the Greens;
If you want affordable rents and good pensions like in Austria and no longer trust the social election promises of the SPD;
If you want to stop uncontrolled migration and prevent the abuse of the right of asylum because, unlike the Left Party, you know that taking in a million people a year would hopelessly overburden our country;
If you support environmental and climate protection, but believe that heating and mobility must be affordable for everyone and that our industry must not go down the drain;
If you want more democracy and diversity of opinion in the media and less influence from US billionaires, whether they are called George Soros or Elon Musk: Then the BSW is the right party for you!
Why the BSW is being attacked
In recent weeks and months, we have seen a real smear campaign against the BSW. There are reasons for this. Those in power did not want a force in the Bundestag that would stand up for peace and criticise the diplomatic failure that has cost so many lives. They also did not want a force in the Bundestag that addresses the scandal of growing old-age poverty and consistently advocates for social justice and the interests of the working population. They also did not want a party in the Bundestag that addresses the failures of migration policy and internal security – without stirring up sentiment against the many immigrants who live and work here and are an important part of our society, as the AfD does.
How the media influence elections
How intertwined are the media and politics, and how can you manipulate with opinion polls? To what extent are parties infiltrated from within? And what does this mean for the political landscape and the elections? I talked about this with Ben Berndt:
[LA note: these paragraphs introduce videos of interviews, accessible in German
A voice against lobbying and corruption: BSW!
Many people work hard and still don’t know how they will make it through the month with their income. Whether it’s about affordable prices for energy and food or decent pensions, higher wages or affordable rents: only those who take on powerful lobbies can really make a difference for people.
News or opinion-making?
Millions of people get their information from the Tagesschau daily news programme. However, more and more viewers are complaining about one-sided reporting: on the refugee crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change or the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. Alexander Teske planned the topics of the programmes for six years at Tagesschau. He wrote a book about his experiences in the ARD newsroom that became a bestseller: ‘Inside Tagesschau’. Alexander Teske discussed his findings with BSW member Sevim Dagdelen and Anne Mücke, co-initiator of https://meinungsvielfalt.jetzt.
Germany’s Ukraine policy: political and economic suicide
Michael von der Schulenburg, a long-standing UN diplomat and current BSW Member of the European Parliament, has been active for the United Nations in numerous conflict and war zones, from Haiti to Iran-Iraq to Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, from the 1980s to the 2010s. In this interesting interview with Gabriele Gysi and Florian Warweg, he talks about the inability of German and EU elites to formulate their own interests and strategies for conflict resolution in Ukraine, about the foundations for successful peace negotiations and why he is pessimistic about the future of Germany and the EU.
Labour Affairs 