Monday, January 8, 2024
After founding the party: Sahra Wagenknecht causes outrage with asylum statements - accusation of fake news
Watson
After founding the party: Sahra Wagenknecht causes outrage with asylum statements - accusation of fake news
Article by Rebecca Sawicki •
2 hours.
With 44 founding members, there is now a new party in the democratic spectrum: the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – Reason and Justice (BSW). Named after founding member and party co-chair Sahra Wagenknecht. The former left-wing politician announced the re-foundation of her party in Berlin on January 8th, together with the former leader of the left-wing faction, Amira Mohamed Ali.
Some of these 44 founding members are former members of the Left, some belonged to other democratic parties - but many are also career changers, explains Wagenknecht at a press conference on the founding of BSW. The party's board also includes a career changer, the entrepreneur and university professor Shervin Haghsheno. The general secretary is Christian Leye, a member of the Bundestag. The former left-wing politician Fabio De Masi and the long-time SPD politician Thomas Geisel are to lead the new party into the European elections.
What BSW specifically stands for remains vague on this day; the party wants to focus on the key points of the founding of the association:
・"Economic Reason"
·"Social justice"
·"Peace"
·"Freedom"
A precise party program should be developed by the federal election - with the involvement of experts. Because they have a much better overview of what the population needs than professional politicians, says Wagenknecht.
Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht: What the politician is planning – and how the left is reacting
She makes it clear: her party should go into four election campaigns this year. The alliance not only wants to take part in the European elections, but also in the elections in East Germany, which are coming up in the fall. It is precisely there, says the politician, that cause and effect are confused. The AfD's local strength is the fault of a failed federal policy. The government, Wagenknecht makes clear, continually offends people.
Wagenknecht: BSW is on the side of the farmers
Wagenknecht also speaks about the farmers, who started a large-scale protest week with highway blockades and rallyes on the day the party was founded. She supports the protesters and makes it clear that the traffic lights are to blame for the situation. She is convinced that the government has no plan other than to take the already scarce money out of farmers' pockets. In addition, the opposition largely supports the government's course - this leads to the "reminder elections". In the end, politicians complain about the people.
Wagenknecht fails to mention that the Union, as opposition leader, regularly works at the traffic lights. And she also ignores her former party, which, as the smallest opposition group in the Bundestag, loudly rebels against traffic light politics, the CDU/CSU and the AfD.
When asked whether BSW wants to abolish the individual right to asylum, Wagenknecht explains that there is a lot of agreement that those who are politically persecuted must be given protection. But then the politician gets stuck: the current laws lead to long procedures, she makes clear. And this ultimately culminates in the fact that, as a rule, those who deserve it do not receive protection. “We can see that in the numbers, not even one percent of those who apply for asylum actually have the right to asylum,” claims Wagenknecht.
Wagenknecht is irritating with figures on asylum notices
A statement that is quickly exposed as fake news on social media. For example, the left-wing politician Gökay Akbulut writes on ."
A number that the human rights organization Pro Asyl also comes to. The website says:
"Currently, over 70 percent of the people whose reasons for asylum are being examined by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees are receiving protection in Germany. The rate is therefore at a record level and proves that the vast majority of people who come to Germany and seek protection are very good ones has grounds for asylum."
"The one percent mentioned is a pure fantasy number. There is no empirical evidence that supports or proves this. Neither from NGOs nor from the BAMF," summarizes Martin Glasenapp from the human rights organization "European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights" on X .