"You're sitting in a glass house there too"

"You're sitting in a glass house there too" Article by RP ONLINE • 4 hours • 3 minutes reading time Berlin. Half a year after the TV duel between AfD right-winger Björn Höcke and Thuringia's CDU regional leader Mario Voigt, two controversial women meet in the "Welt" studio: Wagenknecht and Weidel. Are they taking a cuddly approach or are they going for confrontation? The question of whether things will be cuddly or confrontational between Alice Weidel and Sahra Wagenknecht is answered after just two minutes. The AfD leader meets the chairwoman and namesake of the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance in the studio of the "Welt TV" broadcaster. The issue is the fair treatment of the parties when Wagenknecht goes on the frontal attack. "If Ms. Weidel often complains that the AfD is being treated unfairly, I would ask that at least the AfD also observes fair rules," she says. In the run-up to the duel, Weidel called her a "useful idiot of the old parties" and a "stove". She finds that "defamatory and disreputable". Weidel counters that the election campaign is based on exaggerated language and that the BSW in the East is actually acting as a stove. "No real political change will be possible with you," she says. Half a year ago, AfD right-winger Björn Höcke and Thuringia's CDU state leader Mario Voigt had a debate on the station. On Wednesday evening, two populists whose parties are among the winners in the state elections in East Germany. 45-year-old Alice Weidel is the AfD's superstar, 55-year-old Sahra Wagenknecht is the sole ruler of the BSW. One is far to the right, the other falls under the label of left-wing conservative. Both are meeting for such a debate for the first time. After the first confrontation, there are a few things in common. When it comes to energy policy, both criticize the high energy costs and the traffic light coalition. When it comes to Ukraine, Wagenknecht and Weidel are calling for a negotiated peace. "Ukraine will not be able to win this war, but we have to negotiate," says Wagenknecht, and Weidel adds: "These are AfD positions, as we have been putting forward them from the beginning." She finds that "a bit cheap," Wagenknecht snaps at the AfD politician. Both have different opinions on the debt brake: Wagenknecht wants loans for investments in infrastructure, Weidel would rather cut social spending. When it comes to the war in the Middle East, the AfD is unilaterally on the side of the Israeli government, says Wagenknecht. Weidel emphasizes that every country has a right to self-defense. When it comes to migration policy, someone who is not even present suddenly becomes the focus of the debate: Björn Höcke. Wagenknecht accuses Weidel of stirring up resentment on the issue and of allowing himself to be used by right-wing extremists like Höcke. The AfD is not entirely clear about what it means by "remigration". "There is nothing illegitimate about enforcing the law and the law," she says in reference to deportations. "I also think that we urgently need to reduce the current numbers." But when people talk about "millions of remigrants," "Mr. Höcke is talking about 20 to 30 million people, so to be honest, that makes me sick." Then she reads out to Weidel long passages of Höcke's statements in which the AfD right-wing politician advocates a "large-scale remigration project" of "migrants who cannot be integrated," in which a policy of "well-tempered cruelty" cannot be avoided. The problem, says Wagenknecht, is that "the Höckes" now dominate the AfD. She reminds us that in 2017 Weidel wanted Höcke out of the party: now she is letting him manipulate her. "Why did you want to exclude him if he is such a nice person?" she asks. Weidel does not answer the question, but attacks Wagenknecht. On the subject of extremism, she says: "You are also sitting in a glass house there." Weidel accuses Wagenknecht of having been in the SED, then front woman of the "Communist Platform" of the PDS, later in the Left Party. When asked whether she rules out a coalition with the AfD at federal and state level, Wagenknecht says: "Of course I rule out a coalition with people who are anchored in the neo-Nazi swamp." At some point, Weidel stopped fighting "these people". Weidel points out again that she is standing here, "and not Mr. Höcke." In contrast to the TV duel between Voigt and Höcke six months ago, there was significantly less discussion about the debate between Weidel and Wagenknecht. Voigt took a big risk at the time, ignoring warnings from his party. In the end, he emerged victorious from the duel. This time it is not so clear.