So, somebody recently asked me to do a Marxist–Leninist reading of the conservative-left party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) the party is currently still operating under that name, though a potential rebranding is expected. I am half German, so I figured I would write a short, factual overview of what the party is, where it comes from, and how it positions itself.
We can discuss theory and critique in the comments afterward.
Quick Summary
- The” BSW” was created as a splinter group from “Die Linke”.
- Die Linke” itself is also the product of earlier mergers and splits in German left politics.
- The party was initially founded and led by Sahra Wagenknecht, but this was or is about to change.
- Wagenknecht is married to Oskar Lafontaine, former SPD leader and prominent figure in Die Linke. She grew up in the GDR and is half-Iranian.
- In the European Parliament, BSW sits with the Unified European Left (UEL), not GUE/NGL.
Sahra Wagenknecht: Background & Profile
Sahra Wagenknecht is one of the most prominent figures in German politics, known for her mix of left-leaning economic positions and culturally conservative messaging.
- ** Early life & ideology:**
Born in the GDR to an East-German mother and Iranian father, she entered the PDS (the post-SED party) in the early 1990s. Her early writings were more traditionally Marxist, though her later positions diverge sharply from orthodox Marxism.
- Career in Die Linke:
Served as Bundestag representative, economic spokesperson, and co-chair of the parliamentary faction. She became known for criticizing neoliberal reforms and EU austerity.
- Internal conflicts:
Repeated disputes with other factions of Die Linke, especially over migration, cultural politics, and foreign policy, led to her eventual split.
- Public image:
Combines left-wing economic rhetoric with conservative cultural critiques. Highly media-savvy and frequently on talk shows. She also writes a lot of books.
- Personal ties:
Her marriage to Oskar Lafontaine further ties her to older social-democratic and post-communist political networks.
The BSW: Ideological & Policy Profile
The BSW positions itself as a party for “social justice, economic stability, and common sense,” blending social-democratic economics with socially conservative themes.
- Economic Policy
Strongly interventionist; supports state regulation and higher taxes on the wealthy. Critical of privatization; favours re-municipalization of key services. Focus on cost-of-living issues, housing, and industrial decline. Pro-industrial strategy but anti-corporate in rhetoric.
- Social & Cultural Policy
Rejects identity politics and “lifestyle leftism.” More restrictive migration stance than most European left parties. Emphasis on social cohesion, stability, and communitarian values.
- Foreign Policy
Critical of NATO and U.S. foreign policy. Opposes weapons deliveries to Ukraine, favours negotiations and sanctions relief. Seeks restoration of economic ties with Russia (while officially condemning the invasion). Sceptical of deeper EU integration.
- Environmental Policy
Supports climate goals but rejects consumption bans and “eco-austerity.” Emphasizes technological investment over regulatory restrictions.
Controversies, Local-Level Behaviour & Criticism
- Local gains but conservative cooperation:
While BSW has achieved notable success in eastern state elections, it often cooperates with conservative or centrist parties at the local/state level, which critics view as inconsistent with its left-economic message .
- Strong anti-“woke” stance:
The party sharply criticizes identity politics, gender policies, and cultural liberalism. This appeals to certain working-class voters but alienates much of the traditional left.
- Accusations of pro-Kremlin alignment:
Opponents argue its Ukraine and NATO positions echo Russian narratives. These are political allegations; the party denies them, and verified evidence of Kremlin funding is lacking.
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There was some suspicion on who funded the party , German news and donation watch list one family (listed as Thomas Stanger) that donated millions to the party.
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Backlash over Ukraine-related remarks:
Wagenknecht has faced criticism for comments perceived as overly sympathetic to Russia or dismissive of Ukrainian concerns, though some viral claims are unverified or misrepresented.
The BSW is not a Marxist–Leninist party, nor does it claim to be its program is reformist, populist, and firmly within the framework of capitalist parliamentary politics.
Anyways, if you find something that is incorrect pls feel free to correct me. Also leave your comments and thoughts below.
N.B: This is in no way to promote this party. This post is more about informing people about it and critically discussing issues arising from such parties.
Bündis Sahra Wagenknecht
Wait a minute, she just named a whole ass political party after herself? Like Bernie Sanders creating a “The Bernie Sanders Party” political party? Is this like a normal thing for Germans?
Not usual and they’ve just relabelled themselves.
Well there are many parties in Europe (also outside of Germany) who name their party after themselves. Belgium and Ireland also has parties named after the main person. Also The BSW was also joked about because of that, though there are talks that the name of the party will change as Sahra Wagenknecht will become more so a board member than a party leading figure
Great work!
Thanks comrade!
I hate the editing on this platform
Guessing you mean getting the text under the bullet points to be part of the list, there is a trick to it. Well two actually.
The first is ending a line with two spaces, this tells the markdown interpreter to do a line-break (which it normally ignores) and prevents the list from breaking. Example 1 below has spaces at the end of the list and the first text line, example two doesn’t.
The other is indenting the paragraphs 4 spaces (or 8,12,16,… if you are deeper into a cascading list). Example 3 has the indent, therefore the list doesn’t break and example 4 is numbered correctly. But example 4 has no indent, therefore breaks the list, and the ordered list numbering starts over from 1 in the next list item.
I used an ordered list here for demonstration purposes, note how it automatically increases numbering until the last point although the source text always says 1. But the principle works the same with unordered lists (bullet points), unindented paragraphs will break lists.
So this source text:
1. **OL 1** text preceded by 2 spaces and a newline text preceded by 2 spaces and a newline 1. **OL 2** just newline, no spaces just newline, no spaces 1. **OL 3** New paragraph indented by 4 spaces 1. **OL 4** Unindented new paragraph breaks the list, note the numbering resetting 1. **OL 5** text preceded by 2 spaces and a newline New paragraph indented by 4 spaces 1. **OL 6**Will turn into this list:
-
OL 1
text preceded by 2 spaces and a newline
text preceded by 2 spaces and a newline -
OL 2 just newline, no spaces just newline, no spaces
-
OL 3
New paragraph indented by 4 spaces
-
OL 4
Unindented new paragraph breaks the list, note the numbering resetting
-
OL 5
text preceded by 2 spaces and a newlineNew paragraph indented by 4 spaces
-
OL 6
Edit: Added combination of the two methods in example 5.
Thank you so much for this
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I have recently been finally approved for membership.
I do disagree with outsiders calling the part socially conservative. It doesn’t take issue with things like LGBT rights, deviation from the “nuclear family” or anything else that allows people to live their personal lives as they see fit.
What they did criticise is the overfixation on liberal gender issues. The party doesn’t view intersectionality as an important topic. And I tend to agree with that. The focus of any Marxist or otherwise left party should be the working class. If there is a societal push to greater LGBT rights or the like, it should be supported. But it’s a waste of resources to spend too much on those issues, if there isn’t. Specifically changes to grammar of the German language were made. To be more inclusive gendered nouns are slowly being replaced with neutral nouns that are aesthetically unpleasing and don’t really do anything about inclusiveness (One of the most common new spellings includes an asterisks in the middle of the word *). Neither has language been specifically un-inclusive. It’s a way too overblown issue and waste of time.
Take China as an example with it’s three no’s in regards to LGBT (no approval, no disapproval, no promotion). Homosexuality bas been decriminalised in the 90s or early 2000s if I remember right. No one is stopped from being gay, bi, trans, etc. Yet the LGBT movement in China is no important political issue. Therefore the CPC isn’t championing LGBT rights or making any sweeping reforms in regards to such. It’s a puzzle piece, not the entire puzzle.
As for the party itself, it’s not a Marxist party, but much of its leadership come from Marxist circles. It does incorporate democratic centralism. But the goal of the party isn’t to establish socialism. It’s a vehicle to break up traditional neoliberal politics via populism and revive the left. Hopefully some day reviving Marxist movements and communist parties in the west. Because honestly speaking if a revolution were to break out anywhere in the first world, no communist party there today has the organisation or numbers to lead it.
well fuck you too, “comrade”
so much for solidarity
What they did criticise is the overfixation on liberal gender issues. The party doesn’t view intersectionality as an important topic. And I tend to agree with that. The focus of any Marxist or otherwise left party should be the working class.
LGBTQ people are a part of the working class. The working class is not some monolith devoid of queer people. Their liberation should be supported. Internationally queer people represent a significant portion of the working class demanding liberation, and I don’t imagine this isn’t true in Germany of all places.
I’m not German and do not understand the context of BSW and Die Linke’s differences in terms of supporting LGBTQ rights beyond this and other things I’ve read, but does BSW meaningfully oppose or de-emphasize LGBTQ liberation?
As said before the BSW does not oppose LGBT rights. But the BSW is a working class party, not a LGBT party. The priorities should be obvious. Pandering to any kind of minority is how liberals do politics. Nothing we should copy. Again just look at China as an example.
“Wow go fuck yourself” is my immediate response and I think naturally the response of any other working class person who also happens to be queer. Clearly there needs to be significant political upheaval in Germany, but you’re fucking stupid if you think that abandoning a significant and politically active section of your class is liberal or anything other than a stupid idea.
The reason that liberation is a critical part of any socialist program is because when workers face special oppressions, they become easier to exploit, lowering wages and conditions for all workers. Also, when you work towards the liberation of large sections of your class who face special oppression (transphobia, Islamophobia, etc) then you gain their trust. This is why national liberation is key.
Also you don’t live in China you asshole, you live in fucking Germany. China has critical lessons but you do not fucking live in China and you’re clearly not learning the right ones.
But the BSW is a working class party, not a LGBT party.
Go fuck yourself
The world is not coloured in black and white. The purpose of a communist movement is to build socialism and a dictatorship of the working class first and foremost. Claiming anything else is revisionism.
No one is arguing against LGBT rights. No one is being abandoned. All you’re doing is making empty false accusations.
Your claims are unsubstantiated too. Supporting LGBT rights has not revived any communist movement in the world thus far. And it won’t. Actually building working class mass movements will.
You’re the one who can go fuck themselves for being a raging liberal. You’re no Marxist.
You’re the one who can go fuck themselves for being a raging liberal. You’re no Marxist.
Literally who are you going to win over while talking like this lmao. Have like literally one gay friend who can explain how weird and gross your attitude is in real life please because I want you to win, genuinely, but this is an incredibly coddled view to have.
One should be smart in how they present themselves and their movement to different sections of the working class, of course, but your analysis and presentation belies fundamental misunderstandings of why queer liberation was even focused on in the first place and would be alienating for anyone from my background. Idk what to say to you bro except I invite you to try this and when you fail take the lessons humbly.
The differences between BSW and Die Linke are unfortunately much bigger than just their disagreement on cultural wedge issues and identity politics. Die Linke is now very strongly pandering to the base of the Greens, refuses to abandon liberal Zionism, and has fully embraced the pro-Ukraine narrative. After the split with BSW they are now firmly in the pro-EU liberal-left.
That makes sense; however, doesn’t answer my question in regards to LGBTQ liberation
does BSW meaningfully oppose or de-emphasize LGBTQ liberation?
I don’t know if they actively oppose it, some probably do, and Wagenknecht herself falls on the more conservative side, but as a party they definitely de-emphasize it.
I also think that opinions differ within the party itself with some being significantly more conservative on this issue than others. Some see it as opposing the way that liberal parties are hyper focusing on identity issues to avoid dealing with class issues, others i think just have a reactionary position, at least on the gender part if not so much the sexuality party.
One of their leaders answers a question on this topic here: https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/profile/fabio-de-masi/fragen-antworten/wie-stehen-sie-zu-lgbtq
Some parts of his answer are ok others are pretty problematic and play into right wing clichés and unscientific talking points. I don’t know how representative he is of the party as a whole, but given his position he is probably at least somewhat reflective of their overall views.
Of course this is disappointing to see in a party that describes itself as being on the left (and economically i would say they are), and that has a mostly correct anti-imperialist stance, which is very rare in Germany.
As you said:
LGBTQ people are a part of the working class. The working class is not some monolith devoid of queer people. Their liberation should be supported.
It’s really as simple as that.
Honestly joining the dkp is a million better than the BSW - and the dkp needs more members & financing more urgently than bsw.
The DKP hasn’t achieved anything in decades. It’s not getting any traction or any growth. Most members are just old ostalgists.
We need movements that can agitate and destabilise. That is what the BSW can be. I’m fully aware that it will never lead a socialist state, but it will create the conditions for one to arise and replace it. In the East German states the BSW already achieved election results rivaling the old parties and the far right.
Currently a quarter of German electoral and parliamentary politics is held by the far right. It could rise to a third. The old parties won’t prevent this. The BSW can both further cause the decline of the old parties and stop the far right from coming to power.
BSW is already going the way of “Your Party” in the UK, with addition of further legitimizing far right rhetoric, Wagenknecht despite all the good anti-imperialist pushback against the mainstream still did not dispute their narratives and tailed reactionary germans in the name of the “working class”. In fact your argument in favor of joining the BSW which also draws from old ostalgists (young east germans are majority caputred by germany’s various MAGA rip-offs) btw, is the same argument made by marxist who still are members in Die Linke.
BSW also doesnt have the party mechanisms to stop far right/maga communist types from infiltrating and capturing the party. Why waste our times doing the 20th version of the DSA “march through the institutions” electorialism bs, which keeps failing and failing, when you as a communist can actual try to build an actual communist party? The last ten years of pipelines, hiding power levels, making socialism “appealing to masses” via trickery, aesthetication of action, allowing every type of opportunism under guise of non-sectarianism and nebulous strategies and manifesting socialism instead of building it - has not worked and will not.
Communist parties in the west have done nothing to build socialism or create the conditions for revolution since the fall of the Soviet Union. Arguable even before.
Before we can build socialism, we need to overthrow the old order. For that we need agitation, populism, destabilisation and acceleration. The existing communist parties have not achieved this. If we stand by doing nothing or founding even more splinter communist parties we will be lost once a revolution arrives. Then it will be fascists seizing the reigns of any mass unrest or civil war.
What we need is to seize the narrative and rhetoric. That’s what a new populist party is better suited to do than a tiny party of old farts reminiscing about the old days.
Personally I’m very much vocally supporting a security apparatus for the party that can prevent any subversion from non-socialist populists joining. Also as a note the party has been thorough with their membership application process. I had to wait nearly a full year for it to be complete.
I agree with your assessment here:
Why waste our times doing the 20th version of the DSA “march through the institutions” electorialism bs, which keeps failing and failing, when you as a communist can actual try to build an actual communist party?
I will always advocate for communists to join and support real communist parties instead of reformist socdem ones. That being said, this argument:
BSW also doesnt have the party mechanisms to stop far right/maga communist types from infiltrating and capturing the party.
isn’t really relevant. The far right already have a party: they have the AfD, who are by far more electorally successful than the BSW. You don’t infiltrate and take over a weaker party when you already have a stronger one that is much more aligned with your views.
Even if they succeeded, the effect of that would only be to split the far right vote, instead of concentrating it behind the AfD, which is objectively a bad strategy.
I mean revisionists & pro-capitalist elements still take over socdem/socialist parties despite there being more pro-capitalist parties - the point is not splitting the vote but dismantling any vector of anti-west thought - and with sections of the german elite becoming more agreeable towards the afd…
why didn’t you just join “die linke”, the dkp or the mlpd? genuine question. because afaik the bsw is very apologetic about the afd and both parties talked about eventually forming a coalition government.
i know the parties i mentioned have their issues: die linke has the “antideutscher flügel” - a bunch of zionists who luckily get bullied out of their own party, the dkp and mlpd are very small. - but these problems are not as severe as a party that seems to get comfortable with neoliberal fascists.
Die Linke doesn’t just have a wing that is Zionist, the official position of the party is liberal Zionism.
The problem with the centrist liberal consensus “firewall” against the AfD is that it doesn’t work. Far from preventing the AfD from growing it has done the opposite. And the result has been that what used to once be exclusively AfD far-right positions on immigration are now being embraced and legitimized by the center-right CDU.
Die Linke has essentially ceased to be a mass working class party. At one point they were polling below 5% which is disastrous. Their very modest resurgence in the last elections was mainly due to courting voters away from the Greens, which they were able to do because they pivoted their base away from the traditional working class to the Greens’ base: left-leaning but financially comfortable, liberal, university educated urban professionals and intelligentsia.
The failure of the liberal-left to address the real material concerns of the working class has had visible consequences in electoral politics: Neither Die Linke nor any of the centrist parties, succeeded in reducing the AfD’s support, not even the CDU who tried to win back right wing voters by embracing right wing anti-migration policies. The AfD is now polling in first place. This is objectively catastrophic. They cannot be ignored or their supporters written off as entirely fascists.
Something needs to be done to win back those voters and the only party that has successfully courted voters away from the AfD is the BSW. And not because of their more conservative positions - the CDU tried that “pander to the right” strategy and failed. But because they represent a real alternative to the mainstream establishment on existential issues like the deindustrialization crisis, the establishment’s obsession with Russia, the corrupt and undemocratic Brussels bureaucracy, and the rapidly declining standards of living of the working class.
The only way to reduce the AfD’s support is to not allow them to monopolize these anti-establishment sentiments which more and more people support. You can’t reflexively just oppose everything that comes from the AfD, which is what Die Linke does. That just puts you in lockstep with the increasingly unpopular liberal establishment. That’s how you end up voting to arm Ukraine just becuse the AfD opposes it.
You need to recognize how the AfD cynically uses populist positions to win support for their reactionary agenda, and the only way to undercut that strategy is with left wing populism.
i agree with most of what you said actually.
despite that the bsw is demonizing members of the working class and hurting people with reactionary stances.
if we talk about actively helping members of the working class - die linke would actually actively improve things - and i am not advocating for them, i vote differently. my political involvement is outside of parliamentarism.
an afd government is gonna be like a cdu government, i am not alarmist about that. - the constant anti-afd rhetoric is wasted energy and counterproductive.
I agree that the BSW is highly problematic. For me supporting communist parties like the DKP is the way to go, even if they’re small. You have to start somewhere. You can’t rely on socdems and bourgeois electoral politics.
I don’t agree that supporting Die Linke is any better. I think they have a dead end political strategy and economic policies that are little more than socdem wishful thinking without a broader, systemic reorientation of the direction of the economy. And that economic reorientation won’t be possible without a complete reversal of the current foreign policy direction.
The deindustrialization crisis is directly tied into the failure of the energy policy and the sanctions policy. Die Linke completely refuses to see this and continues to insist on sanctions against Russia and a Russia-hostile foreign policy. They say they are for peace and oppose increasing the military budget but they lean into the “Russia threat” tropes which are used to justify the re-militarization. This is all money which is taken away from social programs that Die Linke claims to want to support and expand.
Their China policy is muddled and practically nonexistent, even though China is now the most important German trading partner and any serious national party needs to formulate a coherent position and strategy on such an important issue. Die Linke seems to prefer to not even engage with the topic since their members are either split or solely interested in domestic and European issues. This matters because Europe and Germany’s green transition is not possible without Chinese production, yet Europe continues to impose protectionist tariffs on Chinese EVs and green tech.
And finally, they refuse to see that the EU is headed toward a dead end and probably collapse. Die Linke lives in the 2010s. That time has passed and it’s not coming back. The utopian pan-European liberal project has failed. And Atlanticism is an anchor dragging Europe down into the abyss.
honestly after typing that i wanted to retract my statement lmao. my mind was fixated on their tax policy and completely forgot the reasons you mentioned
As i said, their economic and social policies are socdem wishful thinking. If you look at each individual policy, proposal and position in isolation they sound good.
They sound like something leftists, even communists, should support. It’s good to demand more worker protections, more social spending, higher taxes on the rich and on corporations, etc. Even if these are bandaid solutions that don’t solve the systemic problem of capitalism, harm reduction is still good, right?
The problem is that in the current situation not even these social democratic policies can be implemented. The direction we are going in is a dismantling of the social democratic welfare state, because in the current declining economic situation they can’t be supported simultaneously with a policy of rearmament and massive military and financial aid to Ukraine.
So when Die Linke calls for all of these things while pretending like it’s still 2012 and Germany has a strong economy, and everything in Europe is stable, without talking about the Nordstream sabotage, without talking about the European energy crisis, without a plan to reverse course on the Ukraine policies, it sounds i’m sorry to say like they are living in a fantasy world.
Die Linke because it’s neither a marxist party and is flooded with lifestyle leftists aka university students, social democrats and democratic socialists. Marxists are a minority platform and with the founding of the BSW most left. Also it’s been dying until recently.
As for the DKP and MLPD, because they’re tiny parties and not going anywhere. Communist parties will not revive themselves. As said previously in their current state they wouldn’t be able to become a vanguard for any revolution.
They also have their own issues. The MLPD is a bit suspect because leadership has always been in the hands of one family and their friends. And perplexingly enough they’re pro-Ukrainian or at least opposed to Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian war. The DKP had a revisionist streak, though since about 10 years ago turned away from revisionism towards more revolutionary politics again. At the same time rehabilitating Stalin. But again they’re still in no position to lead any revolution.
mldp is trot. And I would dispute the claim that the antideutsche flügel was bullied out, its still very active - Ramelow is very prominent for example, and liberal/soft zionism is still hegemonic in german left scene.
totally understandable, i used to be in die linke at the beginning of my political journey and noticed it heavily depends on which local group you´re part of. but aside from that: what about the other points i mentioned? maybe it´s just media brainrot - but (afaik) bsw and afd both didn´t rule out working together which is odd considering their anti-capitalist stance.
There´s also occasions where Sahra Wagenknecht called people who make use of the SBGG “cult members”, and she took part in the anti-trans panic. while i know wagenknecht says a LOT and sometimes it´s hit or miss - and one person doesn´t represent a party. - BUT in this instance we have a party named after one person… so y’know.
i´m genuinely asking and not coming at you with the intention of disrespecting you.
EDIT: i failed to realize you´re not the user my questions were directed at xD
dkp is the best of the bunch, mlpd are trots, my local branch is bascially just 5 old people who are pro-israel, yapping vaguely academically about x or y, are critically of everything, and are quite wealthy (the party) due to getting a lot of inheritances from old members which is primarly used to plaster their posters everywhere but they dont connect with the working class at all.
