BSW elects new leadership and plans name change at party congress

Germany’s Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) adopted a new name and elected new leadership at its federal party congress held in Magdeburg on Saturday and Sunday.

Delegates decided to change the party’s name to the “Alliance for Social Justice and Economic Reason,” while resolving to keep the abbreviation “BSW.”

According to a statement on the party’s website, the name change will officially take effect on October 1, 2026. The party will compete in next year’s elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Berlin under its current name.

In addition to the name change, the congress elected a new leadership duo. Amira Mohamed Ali will continue in her role as co-chair, while Member of the European Parliament Fabio De Masi was elected as the new co-chair.

Fabio de Masi received 93.3% of the delegates’ votes, while Amira Mohamed Ali secured 82.6%.

The party’s founder and co-chair, Sahra Wagenknecht, stepped down from her position.

The party was established in early 2024 after Wagenknecht and other political figures split from the Left Party (Die Linke).

In the elections held in February, BSW narrowly missed the 5% threshold required to enter the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.

As reported by DW Turkish, Wagenknecht stated in her speech at the congress that she is not withdrawing from politics and will remain active in German politics for a long time.

Acknowledging her mistakes in her speech, Wagenknecht issued a warning to her party. “We are living through the most challenging period in our party’s history,” said the former chair. In her speech, which was interrupted by applause, she leveled serious accusations against the federal government and the opposition parties in the Bundestag, arguing that her party is “indispensable.”

Wagenknecht said the political situation in the Federal Republic of Germany reminds her of the “final days” of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). She particularly associated this with the political class’s denial of reality and its refusal to acknowledge political and economic difficulties.

Not exempting her own party from criticism, Wagenknecht said that BSW does not always speak the language of its voters—the “low-income, the not-so-well-off, the people who have to struggle”—and argued that they must do better in this regard.

It is anticipated that Wagenknecht will be given the chairmanship of a core values commission to be formed within the party, where she will guide the issues the party addresses.

According to the observations of a Berliner Zeitung reporter, the atmosphere in the hall appeared relatively relaxed, despite the political turmoil and signs of collapse that have shaken BSW in recent months. Most delegates seemed to be confronting the upcoming challenges with a stern optimism.

The report notes that the party leader has long maintained a negative stance on the restrictive member admission policy, which has created a poor atmosphere. According to party members, this policy has not kept “careerists” out nor prevented the formation of internal networks; on the contrary, it has led to the party being perceived as “a slightly modified Left Party.” This was “a blow in every respect, because for BSW, being Left 2.0 is seen as a terrible vision.”

Overall, many delegates agreed that the party congress was less contentious than feared. Historian Claudia Wittig from the Saxony-Anhalt state association praised Sahra Wagenknecht’s speech. Wittig said she believes 2026 will be a fateful year for the party and warned, “I think we will enter the Magdeburg state parliament. But the party must consolidate itself.”

Gerold Lehmann, deputy state chairman for Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, shared this view. A new state parliament will also be elected in his state next year. Lehmann, who comes from the BSW stronghold of Malchin, confidently stated that there is certainly much to learn from the party in the northeast.

Meanwhile, the issue of relations with the AfD continues to cause confusion within the party. Recently, a large part of the state executive board in Saxony-Anhalt—those who favored a strict “firewall” policy against the AfD—was removed from office.

Furthermore, BSW politicians Frederike Benda and John Lukas Dietrich recently published an article in Berliner Zeitung arguing that the “firewall” against the AfD is dead, but no one wants to admit it.

The authors argued that a portion of large and medium-sized entrepreneurs and the super-rich have long shown interest in the AfD, claiming that this party’s fiscal and economic policy is “nothing more than a rebirth of the FDP [Free Democrats].”

The BSW authors suggested that “concerns” about the AfD are partly related to obstructing BSW:

“The publicly expressed concerns about any form of AfD participation in a state government are only partially related to realistic, political reservations, such as the fiscal and economic policies outlined above. For some, the greater purpose behind this is to exert pressure on BSW. Thus, this new party will represent policies that do not change the political status quo. In case of doubt, we will be drawn into a coalition to prevent the AfD. But BSW will not bow to the ‘business as usual’ approach.”

Speeches at the congress harshly criticized the federal government formed by the CDU/CSU and SPD. A motion passed by a majority vote criticized the government’s increase in the defense budget and the new military service reform passed by the Bundestag last Friday, while demanding an end to military aid to Ukraine and the resumption of natural gas imports from Russia