By Julian Hale
A new political party came into being in Germany and is set to run in various elections, including the European elections in June this year. Here’s a brief introduction to some of the basics plus a look at what the German media have been saying in the past week or so, mainly in their headlines. It will be fascinating to see how this party evolves as there seems to be a trend in European politics away from the domination of the past of big political parties towards a more fragmented political landscape.
The new political party in Germany, widely covered in German media, is called the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht für Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit. That translates as the Sara Wagenknecht Alliance for Reason and Justice. So, on the face of it, who wouldn’t vote for a party promising ‘reason and justice’? And across Europe, we have been seeing a growing number of parties emerging with names that seem to promise a lot, for example, Podemos [We can] in Spain or the Movimento Cinque Stelle [Five Star Movement] in Italy. Clearly the choice of such names is no accident and clearly we all hope that voters see beyond the superficial appeal of any party name and dig deeper into what the party stands for.
Sahra Wagenknecht, who is a photogenic and very well dressed lady, was born in 1969 in Jena, east Germany, and was, up until recently a well known politician in Germany’s third major political force, Die Linke [The Left], with a strong media presence in Germany. A member of the German parliament since 2009, she broke away from Die Linke to form her own party recently.
To help you orient you a bit about this new development, here’s a flavour of how the German media currently see the new party, , via some of the German headlines (and articles I’ve read), with my translations and a brief bit of comment/explanation.
Newspaper – Die Zeit. It says – Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance: A little bit CDU, a little bit AfD, a little bit of The Left. That rather encapsulates a lot of the confusion surrounding what the party stands for, which can be read in many German media. The CDU is the right wing Conservative party that has been the major force in German politics along with the SPD whereas The Left is, as it says, left wing, and AfD, Alternative für Deutschland, is far right.
Newspaper – Die Tageszeitung. It says – New Sahra Wagenknecht Party – the big unknown. That rather speaks for itself in terms of the uncertainty surrounding the party.
Newspaper – Osthuringer Zeitung. It says – Wagenknecht Party founded – four elections in 2024 – Initial capital of 1.4 million euro.
TV/online – Die Tagesschau. It says Wagenknecht Party – the panacea (or miracle cure or magic bullet) against the AfD. The implication here is that voters who might have otherwise voted for the AfD may vote for her party. That would reduce the vote of the AfD party, which is considered by many as being far right and a threat to democracy.
Online – t-online. It says – Wagenknecht Party parties want to score in elections in east Germany. The photogenic 54-year-old, Sahra Wagenknecht, comes from east Germany herself and this is where the AfD are expected to make their strongest showing in upcoming elections because, generally speaking, unemployment levels are higher there than in the west and there is more disenchantment with mainstream political parties.
As the paper says in the article, in pretty direct language:
“Wagenknecht hofft darauf, AfD-Wähler zu gewinnen, die weder rechts noch rechtsradikal, sondern die “wütend, enttäuscht und politisch heimatlos” geworden seien.”
Translation: Wagenknecht hopes to win AfD voters, who are neither right wing nor radical right wing but who have become ‘furious, disappointed and politically homeless’.
I’d be interested to hear your reactions and the kind of language-related articles you’re interested in (be that relating to English, German, French, Spanish, Italian or, potentially, Latin) – JulianAHale@gmail.com