Left Conservatism: Sahra Wagenknecht's Challenge to the German Party System

Abstract

This article reviews the record of Germany's current coalition government consisting of the SPD, Greens and liberal FDP under chancellor Olaf Scholz, a member of the SPD. Since 2021, the coalition's failure to set a coherent policy agenda, permanent infighting and external challenges, such as the Ukraine war and immigration, have led to a dramatic decay in support for the governing parties. The opposition CDU/CSU has profited little from the government's weakness, while the rightist AfD rides high in opinion polls and elections. Conversely, Die Linke experienced a split in December 2023 when a group of its legislators - led by Sahra Wagenknecht, the former co-chair of the left's parliamentary group, decided to found a new political party, the 'Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht - Reason and Justice'. The article evaluates Wagenknecht's political discourse which aims to combine progressive welfare and conservative migration policies. It is suggested that Wagenknecht's 'left conservatism' is a promising electoral project filling a representation gap in German politics.