Germany’s new populist party hopes to build on EU election success

"Our politics revolve around the concerns of the average citizen and not elite debates from small circles that are far-removed from society," said Dagdelen, who has served in the Bundestag since 2005, initially as a member of The Left Party before leaving for the alliance, known in Germany as BSW.

"(People) are worried about escalation of the war in Europe, unchecked immigration, rising criminality and constraints on the freedom of opinion," she said.

Herold called this mix a new left conservatism, and said it could bridge a gap between two sides of Germany's political spectrum.

"There aren't many parties (in this political sphere)," Herold said. "Party leadership thinks there are lots of voters, especially in eastern Germany, that until now had to decide between the culturally conservative Alternative for Germany, or if they were economically liberal they'd have to vote for the Left Party or Greens."

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance's most central — and controversial — positions are immigration and the war in Ukraine.

Wagenknecht has openly courted anti-immigrant sentiment for years and even has gone as far as declaring that Germany is "overwhelmed" and "has no more room for migrants." The line is a key element of the party's strategy to entice voters away from the far-right Alternative for Germany.

That Wagenkhnecht, Dagdelen, party co-leader Amira Mohammed Ali and a number of their fellow members are either the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves has not damaged the salience of their anti-immigration messaging.

This tactic, Herold said, reflects broader shifts in the EU.

"In Germany and really all European countries, a large portion of the population wants to restrict opportunities for immigration," he said. "And if you look in Germany, there's only been one large party over the last decade that has been highly and decisively critical towards immigration, and that was the AfD. But for many people the AfD is too right-wing for them to vote for."

Widespread anti-immigration discourse has pushed most German political parties to the right. The governing coalition has tightened asylum laws and Social Democrat interior minister Nancy Faeser recently pledged to speed up deportations.

Yet Herold believes that Wagenknecht is seen as having a credibility on the topic that parties that are currently or were recently in power — like the Social Democrats, or even the center-right Christian Democrats, who despite a calcified stance are often associated with pro-refugee former chancellor Angele Merkel — lack.

Wagenknecht's party's hard-line stance on immigration is frequently combined directly with its foreign policy platform.

"Economic sanctions have forced more and more people to leave Syria, and meanwhile people wonder why Syrians are the biggest group that want to come to Germany. Instead of bringing doctors, teachers and engineers from Syria to Germany, we should support rebuilding hospitals, schools and companies in Syria," said Dagdelen said, who represents Wagenknecht's party in the Bundestag's foreign affairs committee.

The group's staunch opposition to supplying weapons to Ukraine also makes it an outlier among Germany's major parties, and one of the few German outlets for skepticism towards militarism. It was the only party to join the Alternative for Germany in boycotting Vladimir Zelensky's recent speech at the Bundestag.

Wagenknecht often is accused of being pro-Putin for opposing weapons deliveries to Ukraine and criticizing western sanctions of Russia, yet she's also tapping into a deep-rooted anti-militarism in much of the German population that has only recently been shed in response to the war in Ukraine.

Ute Hermann, a 64-year-old mediator and career coach from Potsdam, told Courthouse News that the war in Ukraine was central to getting her further involved in politics.

"I honestly thought that our government would at the very least attempt some kind of diplomatic peace negotiations. That hasn't happened at all in the last two years. In fact, it's been the opposite," she said.

Hermann, who described the party's politics as "neither left nor right," was one of thousands attending the anti-war demonstration in Berlin Wagenknecht organized in 2023.

It was this focus on anti-war politics, as well as social justice, that convinced her to vote for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance in the European election after years of voting for the Greens.

Though it's central to the party, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance's position on Ukraine isn't unanimous amongst its voters.

"I don't share Sahra Wagenknecht's opinion on Vladimir Putin — I don't think it's possible to negotiate with him," Klaus Weissenberg, a 62-year-old photographer living in Munich, told Courthouse News.

Weissenberg said the party's commitment to Germany's welfare state and broader economic policies were still enough to win him over. "I voted for BSW in the European elections because I think it’s the party that I find the most acceptable," he said.

Given Germany's creeping inflation, creaking infrastructure and sputtering economy, enthusiasm for the three governing parties is tepid at best, and the country's fractious political system means smaller parties have become more influential. In this context, being the most tolerable option is enough to make waves.

The real challenges are waiting in the wings

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance proved particularly popular in former East Germany, where it notched 13.8% of votes in the EU election. The party's next tests will also lie in the east: Germany will have regional elections in the eastern states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg later this year.

Though the Alternative for Germany, the most popular party in eastern Germany by nearly 10 points, is set to dominate, Wagenknecht's party is hoping to build on its initial electoral success.

Many expected Wagenknecht's party's tacking to the right on immigration and cultural issues would cut into the Alternative for Germany's base, but exit polling revealed Wagenknecht voters had previously supported an array of parties from across the political spectrum, with more of them arriving to the Wagenknecht camp from the Social Democrats, Left Party and Christian Democrats than from the far right.

Threading the needle of aping right-wing positions without becoming indistinguishable from Germany's right-leaning parties will be an ongoing challenge.

"We want to ensure those that want a diplomatic end to the conflict (in Ukraine) have parliamentary representation. The AfD's support for Germany's weapons industry means they're not a serious alternative — not to mention their regressive policies around retirement, the minimum wage, and rent," said Dagdelen.

Regardless of whether Wagenknecht can siphon off far-right votes, it will likely have a role to play in forming coalitions as other parties scramble to cobble together the necessary numbers to keep the Alternative for Germany out of power.

Wagenknecht has ruled out working together, but all other doors are open.

The prospect of playing kingmaker in state coalition building would be a strong showing for a party that's been around less than a year. But as with many populist parties, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance will risk dampening its protest credentials by joining unwieldy coalitions with established parties. How the party navigates this will help indicate what voters can expect in future federal elections — and if they can still imagine calling the group their political home.

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