Sahra Wagenknecht, a veteran figure of Germany’s far left now leading her own breakaway party, believes Donald Trump could be the key to ending the war in Ukraine.
“I don’t consider Donald Trump to be a great bringer of peace. I’m very skeptical of him,” Wagenknecht told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook Podcast. “But the Russians haven’t said, ‘No, we won’t meet with Donald Trump.’ On the contrary, Putin has agreed to meet. And of course, one must hope that this could lead to a path to peace.”
Wagenknecht’s party, Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), emerged in 2023 as a split from the Left Party, blending socialist economics with hardline immigration policies. She also advocates closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a stance that has drawn accusations of pushing Kremlin propaganda.
With Germany’s February 23 election approaching, BSW and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could shift the balance in the Bundestag, forming a sizable pro-Russia faction. While BSW’s national polling hovers around 5%—the threshold for parliamentary entry—its support remains strong in former East Germany.
Wagenknecht strongly opposes Germany’s military support for Ukraine, insisting a battlefield victory is unrealistic. “Everyone knows Ukraine cannot militarily reclaim the occupied territories,” she argued. “So it’s irresponsible to keep sending more weapons instead of focusing entirely on silencing the guns and negotiating a cease-fire along the current front lines.”
She also shares the AfD’s stance on restoring Russian gas imports, claiming Germany’s economy depends on it. “The reality is simple: German industry has no chance without access to Russian raw materials and energy sources. It will collapse, as will European industry,” she warned.
At the same time, she criticized Germany’s growing reliance on American energy, calling it a dangerous shift. “While it’s correct that we shouldn’t depend on Russia, it’s equally dangerous to be dependent on the U.S., as we currently are. We replaced dependence on Russian gas with dependence on far more expensive American gas, and Trump exploits this dependency to blackmail us.”
Though some of her policies overlap with the AfD’s, Wagenknecht tried to differentiate BSW from the far right, accusing the AfD of becoming too aligned with U.S. interests.
“The AfD is campaigning for a ruthless society modeled on the U.S.,” she claimed. She also took a jab at AfD leader Alice Weidel’s close ties with Elon Musk, pointing out their recent discussion on Musk’s platform, X. “The AfD is also increasingly becoming the right-wing arm of Donald Trump in Germany,” she added.
With just weeks until the election, Wagenknecht’s mix of leftist economics, nationalist rhetoric, and foreign policy skepticism is shaking up German politics—whether it translates into lasting influence remains to be seen.
