The German political institution is so gripped by paranoia over Russia that Chancellor Olaf Scholz is now being in comparison with Neville Chamberlain:
As a member of the “Scholz is the brand new Chamberlain” crowd—what the German debate over help to Ukraine often misses is that this isn’t an summary dialogue.
What Germany decides to do (or not) has actual strategic and human penalties for Ukraine, Germany & Europe. https://t.co/RkLQPe1Vpa
— Aaron Gasch Burnett (@AaronGBurnett) March 29, 2024
That is the atmosphere during which German opposition determine Sahra Wagenknecht’s new get together will take a look at its platform within the June European Parliament elections. (It should additionally get to measure its attraction in state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg within the fall.) A key a part of that platform is opposition to conflict towards Russia, which Wagenknecht made clear in a latest Bundestag speech:
“Have you ever all misplaced your minds?”.
Wonderful and terrifying speech by @SWagenknecht on the folly of Germany’s warmongering strategy to Russia. pic.twitter.com/wfOV1ebzoO
— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) March 17, 2024
Other than Ukrainians, the conflict towards Russia has arguably harm working class Germans greater than anybody else. Regardless of that reality, Wagenknecht is labeled a “Putin appeaser” and one with “sympathies in direction of Russia” for her opposition.
It’s additionally implies that how the get together steered by Wagenknecht – Purpose and Justice (BSW) – fares within the European elections, and what it does afterwards can be fascinating to observe.
BSW is projected to change into the most important left delegation throughout the European Parliament after the June vote, and he or she is reportedly planning an try and type a brand new parliamentary group – one that would successfully demolish the prevailing moribund Left Group.
The Wagenknecht Platform
Wagenknecht’s “left-wing conservativism” would imply a left much less centered on identification points whereas prioritizing working class financial points. Whereas not opposing immigration on any racial grounds, she acknowledges voters’ issues that an excessive amount of immigration will be problematic: “persons are experiencing a scarcity of housing, lecturers are overworked, youngsters can’t converse German and there are cultural conflicts.”
Wagenknecht will get loads of criticism for her stance on immigration, however the reality is that’s what German voters are most involved about:
And it’s what has led to the rise of the Various for Germany (AfD), a celebration that has fascist parts at its core:
Each the AfD and Wagenknecht’s BSW are in favor of reclaiming German sovereignty from the EU and the US/NATO and appearing in Germany’s nationwide curiosity, which might imply ending its participation within the financial conflict towards Russia that has finished way more injury to Germany. In addition they each favor rethinking German immigration coverage.
The battle for Wagenknecht is drawing distinctions between the 2 events. To take action, BSW is specializing in three traces of assault:
That BSW is the true consultant of the working class whereas AfD opposes globalists in favor of a extra nationwide oligarchy. (The AfD, in spite of everything, did obtain its seed cash from a Nazi billionaire household.) BSW likes to level out AfD’s hypocrisy in supporting the latest farmers protests in Germany whereas the get together’s program concurrently requires eradicating farmer subsidies. “This isn’t an anti-system get together. It’s the system, however undemocratic and imply,” says BSW Basic Secretary Christian Leye.
That the AfD opposes immigration on racial grounds that harken again to some darkish chapters in German historical past whereas BSW desires frequent sense approaches that will profit the German working class.
The BSW additionally describes itself as the one constant peace get together within the Bundestag. The AfD, then again, is in no way against militarization. In actual fact, the get together requires the complete restoration of operational readiness of the German armed forces. The AfD’s downside is that the US/NATO train an excessive amount of management over the German army with out taking into consideration German nationwide pursuits.
Right here’s extra on Wagenknecht’s European elections platform from Desk Europe:
The leitmotif of this system is: “Much less is extra.” The BSW strives for an “unbiased Europe of sovereign democracies.” The mixing of Europe “within the route of a supranational unitary state has confirmed to be a mistake.”
The BSW desires to stop wage dumping within the inner market and is looking for the introduction of a European minimal wage. A postulate that the Left Celebration additionally has in its program. The demand for an extra income tax within the industrial sector and a reform of the debt brake can also be frequent to each events. The ability of huge companies resembling Google or Amazon should be restricted, stated De Masi. The BSW is looking for an finish to vitality sanctions towards Russia. They weren’t harming Putin, however Germany.
De Masi ignored the subject of migration in his speech. This system stays comparatively imprecise on the topic: unlawful migration should be stopped and prospects within the residence international locations improved, it says. The suitable to asylum is just not known as into query. Nevertheless, immigration shouldn’t overburden native capacities.
Who Helps BSW?
Primarily working class voters against the Ukraine Struggle.
The ZDF political barometer from February reveals that whereas a little bit greater than 50 % of respondents rated their financial scenario as “good,” slightly below one in three BSW supporters say the identical. And almost half of BSW supporters imagine that they are going to be worse off in a 12 months than they’re right this moment. On the similar time, whereas a majority of respondents had been in favor of supplying extra weapons to Ukraine, amongst BSW supporters it was lower than 40 %.
If these numbers appear excessive, it’s most likely an indication of the environment in Germany the place these against sending Ukraine missiles able to reaching Moscow are labeled Neville Chamberlain.
Plans are within the works for Wagenknecht’s get together to type a left contingent within the European Parliament against the Russia coverage and steer it away from the get together she left, Die Linke (The Left), which has fully collapsed after abandoning almost all of its former working class platform in favor of identification politics in an try to seem “prepared to control.” Very similar to the Greens, The Left more and more stands for neoliberal, pro-war and anti-Russia insurance policies.
To type a brand new parliamentary group throughout the chamber, Wagenknecht would want 23 MEPs from seven EU international locations. Who’re its potential allies?
BSW representatives have confirmed potential talks with France’s La France Insoumise. Different European Parliament members against Venture Ukraine are potentialities. Slovakia’s ruling Smer get together, for instance, was not too long ago suspended from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group within the parliament for questioning NATO and its social conservatism.
A hostile takeover of the present left delegation can also be a risk as there will not be sufficient MEPs to maintain two separate left-wing factions. In keeping with The European Conservative:
Tactically, the German politician has not dominated out becoming a member of the present parliamentary Left faction—changing into the efficient kingmaker inside—and will merely be utilizing the specter of a brand new group as leverage.
Regardless, Wagenknecht’s BSW will possible be one other thorn within the aspect of von der leyen (ought to she stay as European Fee president). We may at all times use extra of this:
Irish MEP Clare Daly known as Ursula von der Leyen “Frau Genocide.”
“Ursula von der Leyen is a determine no member of the general public ever voted for, who’s spent the final three months swooping in and talking over the overseas insurance policies of elected governments, all to cheer-lead for a… pic.twitter.com/Atz4HXgX6r
— Joe Quinn (@SeosQuinn) December 26, 2023
Criticism from All Sides
Wagenknecht’s BSW doesn’t simply get it from what’s now known as the German “heart” (i.e., the events of warmongers and anti-working class insurance policies).
It additionally will get loads of criticism from the left – particularly on the immigration challenge.
They are saying that Wagenknecht’s get together is simply one other taste of capitalism and criticizes the get together for its declared willingness to work with different events to advance its points. That’s not the answer; in keeping with WSWS, it’s the following:
The one method to oppose militarism, forestall a 3rd world conflict and defend social rights is thru the worldwide mobilisation of the working class towards capitalism. No downside will be solved with out breaking the ability of the banks and companies and bringing them beneath democratic management. Such a motion requires the unification of employees throughout all nationwide, ethnic and spiritual boundaries.
Whereas that is not less than real, the disingenuous criticism from liberal identification wings is that Wagenknecht is “anti-vanguard” for ignoring identification points in favor of class-based politics. Of their eyes this makes her proper wing (and even similar to Benito Mussolini). These arguments are consultant of the worry that the return of a class-based left would crash the soft get together of a finance-centered political economic system that’s welded to the politics of recognition.
There’s an argument to be made that Wagenknecht’s model of politics is one hope at containing the rise of the far proper, and it’s one which Wagenknecht makes herself:
Wagenknecht additionally blames the federal government for the rise of the AfD. Any criticism of politics is straight away defamed as right-wing, as was not too long ago the case with the farmers’ demonstrations. We already know this from the protests in the course of the Covid pandemic. “If individuals have been instructed for years that any affordable criticism is right-wing, then it’s no surprise {that a} right-wing get together is profitable.” The truth that the site visitors mild politicians are actually taking to the streets at anti-AfD protests is absurd. “In the event that they actually need to weaken the AfD, they don’t must display, they should lastly change their depressing insurance policies.”
Not solely is Berlin ignoring that recommendation, however the identical is true throughout Europe the place the general image is one among an ascendant proper. Proper-wing events are anticipated to win the election in six of the EU’s 27 member states, together with France and Italy.
It’s a powerful risk {that a} right-wing coalition will take the reins within the parliament for the primary time in its historical past. There’s nonetheless, loads of variation on the proper – particularly on the difficulty of Ukraine. Some are true believers, others had been towards the EU/NATO earlier than they had been for it, and others nonetheless oppose the conflict towards Russia.
The European Peoples Celebration, which is projected to stay the most important bloc within the parliament, is a significant backer of Venture Ukraine. The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) is just too. ECR is led by Brothers of Italy, Regulation and Justice in Poland, VOX in Spain, and the Sweden Democrats.
The opposition to Venture Ukraine will be discovered on the proper within the Id and Democracy (ID) get together, though it is perhaps softening – not less than within the case Rassamblent Nationwide:
The Melonisation — i.e., self-domestication — of Le Pen proceeds apace. After giving up on her anti-euro platform, she’s now appeasing NATO and Washington. She’s virtually ripe for being allowed to control. pic.twitter.com/efTTROq3wp
— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) March 14, 2024
Germany’s AfD and Lega in Italy proceed to carry onto their opposition to the financial conflict on Russia and are consistently hammered by spooks, media, assume tanks, and politicians over it. Nonetheless, ID, which additionally contains Geert Wilders Celebration for Freedom and Austria’s Freedom Celebration, is projected to change into the third largest EP grouping, up from its sixth-place end within the elections of 2019.
On the finish of the day, the unhappy actuality is that parliament has a restricted potential to do a lot apart from present a facade of democracy. The parliament is meant to behave as a examine on fee energy. It has to approve laws proposed by the European Fee, it will probably censure the Fee, and the European Council has to ‘consider’ the results of the parliament elections to appoint the Fee president – though the latter course of changed into a backroom catastrophe in 2019 when Ursula von der Leyen failed upwards into the job.
EU leaders dismissed all of the events’ candidates and surprisingly elevated Ursula von der Leyen, who had not featured within the race and was doing a poor job as Germany’s protection minister.
As president of the European Fee, she holds sweeping powers on a spread of points, together with tech, healthcare and social rights. Current polling reveals {that a} majority of voters (63 %) both view the Fee’s work negatively or haven’t any opinion.
Nonetheless, von der Leyen seems to be just like the odds-on favourite to return to the job and proceed her reign.
