Her party may be less than two months old, but already Sahra Wagenknecht has put a cat amongst the pigeons in Germany. She launched her eponymous party, the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) on 8 January this year, a few months after sensationally quitting the left-wing Die Linke party in October over disagreements on the party’s Ukraine and refugee policies, among others. Now, nearly a quarter of Germans now say they could imagine voting for her party at the next general election.
According to a survey conducted by the pollsters Allensbach, 24 per cent of Germans say they could vote for the BSW next year. In the former east Germany, Wagenknecht’s popularity is even higher, with a staggering 40 per cent apparently considering backing the party. While Germany’s federal elections won’t be held until 2024, 7 per cent of Germans would pick Wagenknecht and her party were a vote to be held tomorrow.
The BSW has unnerved Germany’s other parties because it has proven difficult to shoehorn it into a particular political mould
At first glance, polling at 7 per cent may not seem like much.
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