Belinsky Andrey Victorovich – PhD in Political Sciences, Senior Researcher, INION RAS
The article is devoted to the political biography of the German politician S. Wagenknecht, who is one of the most striking, but at the same time controversial figures in the political life of the FRG. Much attention is paid to the childhood and youth of the politician, which determined not only her worldview, but also her political views in many ways. Wagenknecht's left-wing, socialist views led her to join the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), considered the successor to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the GDR, in the early 1990s. Despite the fact that she quickly entered the party's presidium, Wagenknecht was always in opposition to the party leadership, which was largely due to her ideo-logical views. While the PDS leadership sought to modernize the party, Wagenknecht was on the far left. During the 2015-2016 migration crisis, she spoke out against Merkel's policies, effectively aligning herself with the Alterna-tive for Germany, which led to criticism of her actions within her own party. Ultimately, ideological differences between the party leadership and the ambitious S. Wagenknecht, against the backdrop of a sharp decline in the ratings of the German left, led to the creation of the "Sahra Wagenknecht Union" in 2023. Political scientists consider the program platform of the new political force as a mixture of left (demands for social justice, limiting the power of corporations, etc.) and right (limiting migration) populism. In the Bundestag elections in 2025, the "Sahra Wagenknecht Union" received 4.9% of the votes, which did not allow it to enter the Bundestag. At the same time, it is noted that the party has a chance to occupy its niche in the political system of Germany.
Sahra Wagenknecht, Sahra Wagenknecht Movement, populism, left-wing, Bun-destag elections.
Download text