The BSW must remain tough
The Sahra Wagenknecht alliance was founded to fundamentally change the situation in Germany. The behavior of the Thuringian party leadership in particular is now seriously endangering this goal. In Thuringia, but also in Saxony, the BSW must go into opposition if it does not want to make itself untrustworthy and cause long-term damage.
By Konstantin Schink
By Konstantin Schink
In Thuringia, coalition negotiations are currently underway between the CDU, BSW and SPD to form a government that would not even have its own majority in the state parliament, but would be dependent on the tolerance of the Left Party. If the negotiations were to be concluded successfully, all compromises made by these three parties would be subject to the reservation of Bodo Ramelow and his loyalists. For the regional BSW leaders Katja Wolf and Steffen Schütz, this should have meant that they had to put in a lot of effort and achieve more than would have been the case in a coalition with their own parliamentary majority.
But the exact opposite happened. The exploratory paper itself read like an unconditional surrender by the BSW. The promised peace preamble does not even appear and what was read about financial policy could only leave BSW sympathizers speechless.
,,A sustainable financial policy is the foundation for a government capable of taking action. In view of a structural budget deficit of over 1.3 billion euros, we will take swift measures to consolidate the state budget and make it future-proof without jeopardizing the necessary investment capacity. Our financial policy is based on solid finances that meet the requirements of demographic change. We are enabling investments by creating scope for manoeuvre while complying with the constitutional debt brake, including by extending the repayment periods for emergency loans."
You read that correctly. A savings program of 1.3 billion euros per year is planned for Thuringia. The BSW has set out to break the neoliberal consensus that has been hegemonic in Germany for over four decades, not to radicalize it further. If such a blatant austerity program is planned, then the BSW must fight it fiercely. In Thuringia, however, the leadership around Katja Wolf seems to think it is a good idea to participate in it.
The first victim of compliance with the debt brake is rural areas.
,,In the area of transport infrastructure, we are committed to a long-term mobility offensive. This includes long-term and secure financing of public transport, including improving bus subsidies and better connections to rural areas, the expansion of local rail passenger transport with the addition of interregional bus routes, a Connecting all regions to long-distance transport hubs and continuing and securing the financing of the Germany ticket, including special tariffs."
At this point, it is being acted as if the state is not responsible for expanding public transport. Instead, Thuringia wants to campaign for a long-term mobility offensive, which means that the federal government should please provide more money, which it will of course not do.
,,We will ensure comprehensive care by maintaining all hospital locations as places of medical care."
As a benevolent reader, you might now think: No hospitals should be closed. That's good! But that is by no means the case, as the journalist Norbert Häring writes:,,What is supposed to sound as if hospitals are being maintained actually only means that something medical should still be found where a hospital used to be." The exploratory paper does not even speak out against the closure of hospitals.
The next victim of the debt brake is social housing, which the BSW had promised to double in its election manifesto.
,,We want to create housing for broad sections of the population - sustainable, social and barrier-free, affordable in town and country. In the cities, we are committed to urban development and urban development funding, which increases the attractiveness of urban areas and at the same time strengthens social housing."
How do you want to strengthen social housing? There is no question of doubling it when you have to save 1.3 billion euros a year through the debt brake? Unfortunately, the BSW leadership in Thuringia has not provided an answer to this. All of the concrete demands that the BSW once had are drowned in flowery technocratic language, while the CDU can claim tough concessions such as compliance with the debt brake.
There is nothing in the exploratory paper about the reform of the public broadcasting service and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Quite the opposite.
"In addition, we are ensuring that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is properly equipped to fulfil its constitutional mandate."
The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution President Stefan Kramer, who is currently spying on opposition members under the SPD Interior Minister Georg Maier and discredited, so he should receive more money so that he can continue to classify people as right-wing extremists and anti-Semiticnn, if they dare to criticize the financial elite. I have already published an article on this topic on this blog (title: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a government protection agency). But it gets even worse.
"We want to consolidate the existing programs for democracy education and democracy promotion, with the prospect of developing these into a democracy promotion law if necessary."
Promoting democracy means supporting organizations such as Liberal Modernity or HateAid, which are close to the established parties. The BSW thus enables the old parties to use state money to develop their own front line, which will then take action against conspiracy ideologues and scoundrel pacifists who are found in parties such as the BSW. Here, one is willingly giving one's opponents the weapons with which they will fight you. If there is a slogan for politicians in negotiations, then it is: No money and no additional resources for people who hate us!
When asked about these criticisms by Norbert Häring, the BSW member of the state parliament Dirk Hoffmeister (formerly SPD) replied: "Oh, nooo. Not this conspiracy theorist article again." Anyone who has a serious (and rather BSW-friendly!) journalist like Norbert Häring, who is called a conspiracy theorist just because he criticizes the agreement with the CDU and SPD, should have no place in the BSW. But in Thuringia, such people sit in the state parliament for the BSW.
And Katja Wolf and Steffen Schütz also demonstrated their negotiating skills on the issue of peace. Before the election, the BSW had promised that it would not sign a coalition agreement that did not reject the stationing of US medium-range missiles and arms deliveries to Ukraine. The result in Thuringia was as follows.
The CDU and SPD see themselves in the tradition of Western ties and Eastern policy. The BSW stands for an uncompromising peace policy. Although we have different views on the need to supply weapons to Ukraine to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty, we are united by the goal of promoting a diplomatic solution to the war against Ukraine and reducing the associated tensions within Europe with the aim of a ceasefire and just, lasting peace in the spirit of the United Nations Charter and the Budapest Memorandum. As a German federal state, Thuringia is embedded in a common European security architecture. We agree that our country's defense capability is of great importance for peace and security in Germany and Europe. However, we also recognize that many people in Thuringia are critical of or reject the planned stationing of medium-range and hypersonic missiles. The future government of the Free State of Thuringia is promoting a broad-based debate and is also giving this position a public voice in the sense of a sustainable commitment to peace."
This is nothing other than the statement that no agreement could be reached. At this point at the very latest, the negotiations should have been broken off, as the BSW in Saxony rightly did. But Katja Wolf saw it differently and was quoted as saying: "With our preamble, we have shown how fundamental the question of peace is to us. We negotiated hard on this. In the coalition negotiations, we are concerned with a clear commitment to peace and diplomacy and stable conditions in Thuringia."
The federal leadership reacted quickly, for example Amira Mohamed Ali: "I do not consider the peace preamble in the Thuringian exploratory paper to be a good basis for entering into coalition negotiations." Shortly afterwards, the entire federal executive board opposed the course of the party leadership and the parliamentary group in Thuringia. But it did not help. The coalition negotiations in Thuringia are continuing, which is undermining the authority of the federal executive board and worsening the BSW's chances in the upcoming early federal election.
A major problem for the Left Party has always been that conflicts were not resolved but postponed. This must not be repeated with the BSW. The federal executive board must now have the courage to end this conflict in Thuringia and disempower the Thuringian party leadership if it is not prepared to give in itself.
Sources
Source 1
Source 2
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Source 5
Source 6
13.11.24
Konstantin Schink (born November 8, 2001) graduated from high school in Lower Saxony in 2021. He is currently studying economics and politics in the 2-subject bachelor's program and runs the YouTube channels "Agitator of the Social Market Economy" and "Secondary Agitation."
But the exact opposite happened. The exploratory paper itself read like an unconditional surrender by the BSW. The promised peace preamble does not even appear and what was read about financial policy could only leave BSW sympathizers speechless.
,,A sustainable financial policy is the foundation for a government capable of taking action. In view of a structural budget deficit of over 1.3 billion euros, we will take swift measures to consolidate the state budget and make it future-proof without jeopardizing the necessary investment capacity. Our financial policy is based on solid finances that meet the requirements of demographic change. We are enabling investments by creating scope for manoeuvre while complying with the constitutional debt brake, including by extending the repayment periods for emergency loans."
You read that correctly. A savings program of 1.3 billion euros per year is planned for Thuringia. The BSW has set out to break the neoliberal consensus that has been hegemonic in Germany for over four decades, not to radicalize it further. If such a blatant austerity program is planned, then the BSW must fight it fiercely. In Thuringia, however, the leadership around Katja Wolf seems to think it is a good idea to participate in it.
The first victim of compliance with the debt brake is rural areas.
,,In the area of transport infrastructure, we are committed to a long-term mobility offensive. This includes long-term and secure financing of public transport, including improving bus subsidies and better connections to rural areas, the expansion of local rail passenger transport with the addition of interregional bus routes, a Connecting all regions to long-distance transport hubs and continuing and securing the financing of the Germany ticket, including special tariffs."
At this point, it is being acted as if the state is not responsible for expanding public transport. Instead, Thuringia wants to campaign for a long-term mobility offensive, which means that the federal government should please provide more money, which it will of course not do.
,,We will ensure comprehensive care by maintaining all hospital locations as places of medical care."
As a benevolent reader, you might now think: No hospitals should be closed. That's good! But that is by no means the case, as the journalist Norbert Häring writes:,,What is supposed to sound as if hospitals are being maintained actually only means that something medical should still be found where a hospital used to be." The exploratory paper does not even speak out against the closure of hospitals.
The next victim of the debt brake is social housing, which the BSW had promised to double in its election manifesto.
,,We want to create housing for broad sections of the population - sustainable, social and barrier-free, affordable in town and country. In the cities, we are committed to urban development and urban development funding, which increases the attractiveness of urban areas and at the same time strengthens social housing."
How do you want to strengthen social housing? There is no question of doubling it when you have to save 1.3 billion euros a year through the debt brake? Unfortunately, the BSW leadership in Thuringia has not provided an answer to this. All of the concrete demands that the BSW once had are drowned in flowery technocratic language, while the CDU can claim tough concessions such as compliance with the debt brake.
There is nothing in the exploratory paper about the reform of the public broadcasting service and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Quite the opposite.
"In addition, we are ensuring that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is properly equipped to fulfil its constitutional mandate."
The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution President Stefan Kramer, who is currently spying on opposition members under the SPD Interior Minister Georg Maier and discredited, so he should receive more money so that he can continue to classify people as right-wing extremists and anti-Semiticnn, if they dare to criticize the financial elite. I have already published an article on this topic on this blog (title: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a government protection agency). But it gets even worse.
"We want to consolidate the existing programs for democracy education and democracy promotion, with the prospect of developing these into a democracy promotion law if necessary."
Promoting democracy means supporting organizations such as Liberal Modernity or HateAid, which are close to the established parties. The BSW thus enables the old parties to use state money to develop their own front line, which will then take action against conspiracy ideologues and scoundrel pacifists who are found in parties such as the BSW. Here, one is willingly giving one's opponents the weapons with which they will fight you. If there is a slogan for politicians in negotiations, then it is: No money and no additional resources for people who hate us!
When asked about these criticisms by Norbert Häring, the BSW member of the state parliament Dirk Hoffmeister (formerly SPD) replied: "Oh, nooo. Not this conspiracy theorist article again." Anyone who has a serious (and rather BSW-friendly!) journalist like Norbert Häring, who is called a conspiracy theorist just because he criticizes the agreement with the CDU and SPD, should have no place in the BSW. But in Thuringia, such people sit in the state parliament for the BSW.
And Katja Wolf and Steffen Schütz also demonstrated their negotiating skills on the issue of peace. Before the election, the BSW had promised that it would not sign a coalition agreement that did not reject the stationing of US medium-range missiles and arms deliveries to Ukraine. The result in Thuringia was as follows.
The CDU and SPD see themselves in the tradition of Western ties and Eastern policy. The BSW stands for an uncompromising peace policy. Although we have different views on the need to supply weapons to Ukraine to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty, we are united by the goal of promoting a diplomatic solution to the war against Ukraine and reducing the associated tensions within Europe with the aim of a ceasefire and just, lasting peace in the spirit of the United Nations Charter and the Budapest Memorandum. As a German federal state, Thuringia is embedded in a common European security architecture. We agree that our country's defense capability is of great importance for peace and security in Germany and Europe. However, we also recognize that many people in Thuringia are critical of or reject the planned stationing of medium-range and hypersonic missiles. The future government of the Free State of Thuringia is promoting a broad-based debate and is also giving this position a public voice in the sense of a sustainable commitment to peace."
This is nothing other than the statement that no agreement could be reached. At this point at the very latest, the negotiations should have been broken off, as the BSW in Saxony rightly did. But Katja Wolf saw it differently and was quoted as saying: "With our preamble, we have shown how fundamental the question of peace is to us. We negotiated hard on this. In the coalition negotiations, we are concerned with a clear commitment to peace and diplomacy and stable conditions in Thuringia."
The federal leadership reacted quickly, for example Amira Mohamed Ali: "I do not consider the peace preamble in the Thuringian exploratory paper to be a good basis for entering into coalition negotiations." Shortly afterwards, the entire federal executive board opposed the course of the party leadership and the parliamentary group in Thuringia. But it did not help. The coalition negotiations in Thuringia are continuing, which is undermining the authority of the federal executive board and worsening the BSW's chances in the upcoming early federal election.
A major problem for the Left Party has always been that conflicts were not resolved but postponed. This must not be repeated with the BSW. The federal executive board must now have the courage to end this conflict in Thuringia and disempower the Thuringian party leadership if it is not prepared to give in itself.
Sources
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
Source 4
Source 5
Source 6
13.11.24
Konstantin Schink (born November 8, 2001) graduated from high school in Lower Saxony in 2021. He is currently studying economics and politics in the 2-subject bachelor's program and runs the YouTube channels "Agitator of the Social Market Economy" and "Secondary Agitation."
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