After the first talks with the CDU, party founder Sahra Wagenknecht sees opportunities for possible government participation in Thuringia and Saxony. In Brandenburg, too, the BSW will not close itself off to talks after the state elections on Sunday, said the chairwoman of the alliance, Sahra Wagenknecht, to the German Press Agency in Potsdam. At the same time, she sharply criticized the CDU federal chairman, Friedrich Merz.
“First of all, I can say from the discussions I had with Mr Kretschmer and Mr Voigt that I believe there is a genuine interest in taking a new path together with us,” said Wagenknecht, referring to Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt. “But to what extent this will actually manifest itself in the willingness to change policy, we cannot yet say at this point.”
She reiterated the demand that foreign policy goals be anchored in the preamble of a coalition agreement for a state government, namely the demand for more diplomacy to settle the war in Ukraine and a “reduction in the risk of war in Germany” as well as the rejection of new US medium-range missiles in Germany.
In this context, she attacked the position of CDU leader Merz: “It is of course a very big problem at the federal level that Mr. Merz would actually be putting Germany at massive risk with his foreign policy positions,” said Wagenknecht. Merz wants to deliver Taurus missiles to Ukraine – which, she said, would be extremely dangerous. “So, I very much hope that Mr. Merz, before the question becomes concrete, because he could actually be the next chancellor, that there are still debates in the CDU about whether to go down this path.”
Wagenknecht concluded the election campaign in Brandenburg on Wednesday evening with a final rally in Potsdam. Several hundred people gathered on Luisenplatz in the city center. A new state parliament will be elected in Brandenburg on Sunday.
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