At the party conference of her state association in Brandenburg, Sahra Wagenknecht is the center of attention. She can wait with great peace of mind for the state elections.
Star guest at the party conference in Potsdam: Sahra Wagenknecht at the lectern Photo: Michael Bahlo/dpa
POTSDAM taz | When Robert Crumbach was elected as the main candidate, Sahra Wagenknecht gave him a bouquet of flowers. The party leader then leaves the party conference of her state association in Brandenburg. Labor judge Crumbach, 61 years old, somewhat stocky and jovial-looking, was in the SPD and just a few weeks ago was elected president of the new party in the state of Brandenburg at the founding meeting in Schwedt. In Brandenburg it has only 40 members (many local SPD associations have more) and only 30 of them are there that day and have the right to vote. And unlike Thuringia or Saxony, none of its members and candidates are known beyond Brandenburg; most of them are not even located in Brandenburg itself. However, you can confidently wait for the regional elections.
Although the “Sahara Wagenknecht Alliance” has not had much glamor in Brandenburg so far, it is doing very well. In the European elections he obtained almost 14 percent of the votes and in the polls it is even higher. This, of course, thanks to the charisma of its main figure, the namesake and leader of the party, who is also the center of attention that day in Potsdam. When she arrives late to the conference room of the Potsdam hotel, where her regional association has been meeting since Saturday morning, she is immediately surrounded by cameras.
Thanks to them, around 20 journalists came, which is around a third of the participants at the party conference. Wagenknecht provides them with material for their reports: “We can all be a little proud of ourselves,” he begins by praising his supporters for their success in the European elections. Then he goes on to compare the mood in Germany with the final phase of the GDR. The government in Berlin has distanced itself from the population. East Germans have already experienced what it feels like when a turning point is approaching and when industry collapses, they take another step forward, as if the last days of the Federal Republic of Germany had already begun. He does not want to “completely match it,” says Wagenknecht. But Germany is currently “at the rear in a world full of crises” and of course the traffic lights are to blame for this. “We must not destroy our industry like that again,” he warns to applause.
Brandenburg is just a stage
For Wagenknecht, the elections in Brandenburg are only a stage on the way to his real goal of returning to the Bundestag with his new party, as he makes clear in his speech. “We want to change federal politics,” he stressed several times in his speech. These can be influenced by the state elections, he says, because their results send a signal to the federal level. “Of course we will not end the war in Ukraine in Brandenburg,” he admits. But every vote for the BSW in Brandenburg is “a vote for peace and democracy, and against this insane war rhetoric.”
The theme of “peace” is actually the theme that unites BSW members the most. Lawyer Stefan Grüll, who was once an FDP MP in North Rhine-Westphalia, came to the BSW as a West German. The fear of war also worries Dr. Jouleen Gruhn, who was elected second on the BSW list that day. She is head of department at the Ministry of Health in Potsdam and that is why she is worried about her son. “What good is cheap housing if they send me to the front?” asks Dominik Mikhalkevich, 26, who is also spokesperson for the “Alliance for Peace” in his hometown of Brandenburg an der Havel. That's the basic tone.
However, when the programme was adopted, regional issues were at the forefront. At the beginning of the day, party leader Crumbach listed the problems that are burning under the fingernails of many people. He fears that Karl Lauterbach's hospital reform will lead to clear-cutting. Eight to ten Brandenburg hospitals could close as a result. He not only calls for all these clinics to be maintained, but also for more affordable housing, better care services, more teachers, free school meals, non-contributory daycare, more investment in roads and railways and more money for the municipalities. He leaves open where this will come from. He therefore questions the phasing out agreed in Lusatia by 2038. This will only happen with BSW if structural change is successful. Under no circumstances should the date be brought forward, even if the traffic lights in Berlin want it to be so.
Mobile phone ban in primary schools, with no 120 km/h limit
The program for the regional elections is approved well before the lunch break. Two amendments are accepted, two are rejected, and that happens in the blink of an eye. Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg, former leftist member of the state parliament and one of the few political professionals present in the room, had already expressly warned against debates on programs that were too long: “We don't have time.”
The program for the regional elections rejects, among other things, a speed limit of 120 on motorways and calls for a ban on mobile phones in primary schools. Wagenknecht also expressed this line in his speech: Children need more teachers instead of smartphones and tablets, and instead of gender, they should first learn to count and write correctly.
The election of the candidates lasted until early afternoon; all were elected by a large majority. The atmosphere is a bit like that of a long parents' evening at an East German school: friendly and helpful. Not all BSW candidates are BSW members; They are still very few. Three candidates are even chosen in absentia: one is “an international lawyer who is stuck in an airport”, as CEO Stefan Roth explains when introducing him. Another works for the fire department and cannot be there because a bomb was found where he lives.
The “left” no longer plays any role
In addition to a colorful mix of lawyers, professors, businessmen and retirees, the candidates include many former local Left Party politicians. But this match is barely mentioned, only mentioned in passing. It is amusing that the leader of Brandenburg's left-wing party, Sebastian Walter, recently challenged Wagenknecht to a “speech duel.” In the European elections in Brandenburg the left fell below four percent: this does not bode well for the state elections.
Sahra Wagenknecht, on the other hand, can wait for it with peace of mind; At the party conference of the “Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance”, some candidates are even thinking about which ministry could take over after the elections – that's how optimistic the atmosphere is here. Now there are only 2,000 votes left before the party can run in the state elections.