"Krone" commentary

Sahra Wagenknecht as a lifeline

Analyzes for the "Krone": foreign policy expert Kurt Seinitz(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

Necessity is the mother of invention. Necessity can overcome fear of contact. This is what Sahra Wagenknecht is experiencing after her vertical take-off in Saxony and Thuringia, because nobody can get past her anymore.

In both East German states, the CDU can only form a government with the inclusion of the "Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance" (BSW). In this way, necessity has made the left-right rebel acceptable as a lifeline against the AfD.

The actual election winner, the AfD, must remain in opposition because the firewall of the democratic parties will at least hold against these extremists. Excluding a 30 percent party makes governing even more difficult.

The BSW is a one-woman party that has taken parts of the Left Party with it as a spin-off. She sits in the Bundestag and alone determines the policy of the BSW, although she did not even stand as a candidate in Saxony and Thuringia. Government negotiations at state level will be correspondingly difficult, especially as Wagenknecht is raising her federal policy demands, such as: An end to arms aid for Ukraine, no new US missiles to Germany that could threaten Russia, and changes to migration policy.

This will be a tough government poker game. The pressure from the CDU's regional organizations in the East on federal party leader Friedrich Merz will also increase, as they support the other, East German view of the war in Ukraine.