TV column "The Wagenknecht Story" - ZDF invests 43 minutes to warn about Sahra Wagenknecht

TV column "The Wagenknecht Story" - ZDF invests 43 minutes to warn about Sahra Wagenknecht Article by FOCUS-online author Beate Strobel • 1 hour • 3 minutes reading time If it were up to ZDF, Sahra Wagenknecht and her BSW would probably have to be provided with a warning: "This woman wants to scare you and destroy the German party landscape." When ZDF journalists research, they do it thoroughly, of course: Sahra Wagenknecht only needs ten minutes a day to transform herself into Sahra Wagenknecht. Brush and braid her black hair, pin everything up well, put hairspray on it, put on earrings - and the private person has become the Sahra Wagenknecht brand. TV journalism can be that close. But who is Sahra Wagenknecht? And what does she want with the alliance named after her, which she founded in October 2023? For well over a year, a documentary team from ZDF followed the politician with a camera. The result was “Inside Bündnis Wagenknecht” (available in the ZDF media library): a very differentiated documentary series that attempts to illuminate as many facets of the party project as possible in five parts. The TV documentary called “Die Wagenknecht-Story” by Falko Korth draws on the series in terms of content, but focuses entirely on the person of the party founder. And quite blatantly has only one goal: to warn against Sahra Wagenknecht. “I don’t think she’s a democrat” “Rebel, realist, populist?” The question mark at the end of the title is just there for the sake of form. To prove this, the documentary brings together many witnesses who see Sahra Wagenknecht as the well-styled anti-Christian. "She was democratically elected, but I don't think she's a democrat," says Reiner Haseloff, Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt. NATO ties are set - Merz sets clear boundaries: no compromises with Wagenknecht Wagenknecht is seen as controlled and cold, stubborn and power-hungry, ZDF confirms. "Me, me and me" is what SPD man Karl Lauterbach lists as Sahra Wagenknecht's three main goals. Only the ex-Green Boris Palmer, himself an enfant terrible of the political scene, takes Wagenknecht's side: she is "a stroke of luck, especially for the eastern German states." Wagenknecht and Lafontaine as the terror of the old parties During prime time, ZDF invests 43 minutes to describe the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance as a party that was created through selfish and ruthless plundering of the Left, and which has since become nothing more than a shell party in the Bundestag. And as a party with Wagenknecht's husband Oskar Lafontaine and Vladimir Putin pulling the strings in the background. For "Zeit" journalist Mariam Lau, for example, it is clear: Wagenknecht and Lafontaine "have destroyed the SPD. She and her husband have destroyed the Left. And now they are setting their sights on the next target, and that is the CDU." Perhaps the BSW really is and wants all of that, who knows? But instead of proving this as thoroughly as the fact that Wagenknecht needs ten minutes to do her famous hairstyle, ZDF relies primarily on the opinions of people who feel directly or indirectly threatened by Sahra Wagenknecht and her alliance. And there are more and more of them. Because, as journalist Heribert Prantl puts it: "Women are becoming a major power factor in this country." Subtle trick: Success through fear From orthodox communist to "left-wing conservative": ZDF explains how it got this far: Wagenknecht developed the alliance as a targeted response to the dissatisfaction of many people with the traffic light coalition and the overall social situation. At the same time, says rhetoric expert Michael Ehlers, Wagenknecht stirs up fears with what she says. "And when I trigger fear, cognition decreases: people are no longer able to think fully and freely. Now I just follow the feeling: I want things to be different." So it is not the old parties themselves who are to blame for the crisis of the established parties and the success of the BSW, but the easily manipulated electorate. At the end, ZDF shows an unusual Sahra Wagenknecht: instead of her usual costume, the private person walks along a track in jeans and sneakers, with only the pearl earrings reminiscent of the Sahra Wagenknecht brand. ZDF says from off-screen that the next few months will show "whether her success is permanent." It sounds a bit like whistling in the dark.