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🇩🇪 Germany /Elections & Politics

Thuringia crisis: Left leader calls BSW a ‘zombie party’

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency Context piece
  • Left party leader Luigi Pantisano described Sahra Wagenknecht’s Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht as a hollowed-out “zombie party.”
  • He said Wagenknecht’s project had failed and urged voters not to support the party in upcoming state elections.
  • The BSW entered regional coalitions after 2024 successes but narrowly failed to win seats in the Bundestag in February 2025.

Luigi Pantisano, leader of Germany’s Left party, has dismissed Sahra Wagenknecht’s BSW as a “zombie party” ahead of upcoming state elections.

“I would say, it is a zombie party that actually no longer has any content, but is only a shell,” Pantisano said after a meeting of the Left’s parliamentary group in Dessau. He urged voters not to waste their ballots on the party.

Pantisano said Wagenknecht’s plan to create a new political force had failed. He also attacked Wagenknecht personally, saying she had failed as a politician and created chaos wherever she became involved.

I would say, it is a zombie party that actually no longer has any content, but is only a shell

· Luigi PantisanoPantisano criticised the BSW’s political substance and urged voters not to support it.

Wagenknecht left the Left party in October 2023 after a prolonged dispute over its political direction. She and her allies founded the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht in early 2024.

The party performed well in the European elections and eastern German state elections in 2024, but suffered a setback in February 2025 when it narrowly missed entering the Bundestag. In Thuringia, the BSW remains part of the governing coalition with the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party.

She herself as a person, as a politician, has failed. Wherever she gets involved, she causes chaos and leaves scorched earth behind

· Luigi PantisanoPantisano attacked Sahra Wagenknecht and said her political project had failed.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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