Economically far left, hard right on migration: Germany’s small BSW party holds the political key

With five seats in an 83-member parliament and just over 5.2% of the vote, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance has emerged as the party that could decide who governs Saxony-Anhalt, Germany’s poorest state.

BSW must now determine whether to let the far-right Alternative for Germany take power through its vote or abstention, or negotiate with the Christian Democrats, the far-left, Social Democrats and Greens to keep the AfD out. Its decision will test whether Germany’s fraying political firewall can still hold. For the first time since World War II, a far-right party could enter government in Germany.

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woke globalism

BSW is an unusual force in European politics. Economically, it backs policies associated with decades-old socialism, including nationalizing major industrial sectors, imposing official controls on energy and housing prices, and restricting capital gains. On migration and cultural issues, however, it echoes the far right, calling for mass deportations and attacking what it describes as “woke globalism.”

The party was founded in 2023 by Sahra Wagenknecht after she left Die Linke, arguing that the left had become too focused on urban identity politics and had abandoned workers’ material interests. In January 2024, she brought 10 Die Linke lawmakers into her own parliamentary group. The party’s mixed ideology has led political scientists and media outlets to label it “red-brown,” red on the outside like communists and gray within like fascists.

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red-brown