Frightened Germans Turn to Anti-War Party Amid Wave of Political Violence

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(Bloomberg) — In the usually quiet western German city of Saarbrücken near the French border, Sahra Wagenknecht rallied an eclectic crowd of several hundred at a campaign rally.

With her sharp calls for a more restrictive immigration policy and her pro-Russian rhetoric, the 54-year-old – who broke away from the hard-left Linke Party to found her own party in January – is targeting disillusioned mainstream voters.

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Ahead of the European Parliament vote on Sunday, opinion polls show her Sahra-Wagenknecht (BSW) coalition getting around 7%, making it the fifth-largest party. But Wagenknecht is expected to have a significant impact on the election, and her emergence as a political force offers clues to the long-term challenges facing Germany's faltering chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

In the short term, the rise in support for the nascent party appears to have drained votes away from the AfD, alleviating concerns about a far-right breakthrough in Europe's largest economy. However, looking to the future, Wagenknecht's success shows the depth of frustration with centrist parties as well as the complex politics that Schulz must navigate as he seeks to maintain support for Ukraine and revive his faltering economy.

Like the AfD, which has also been damaged by disagreements over relations with China, especially Russia, Wagenknecht's support is about twice as strong in some of the former communist eastern states, where many feel ignored by the federal government in Berlin.

Opinion polls show the main opposition Conservatives still enjoying a comfortable lead of around 30%, while the AfD, Schulz's Social Democrats and the Greens have around 15%, in a nearly three-way tie for second place.

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“I promise you: If we give a strong performance on June 9, if we get a really exciting result, we will feel it in Berlin and it will create pressure there,” Wagenknecht declared at the May 27 crowd, where some waved Palestinian flags and chanted anti-Israel slogans. Slogans of Israel.

It attacked the three-party ruling coalition led by Schulz, blaming the rise in energy prices on the government's decision to stop buying Russian oil and gas. The European Union and the Green Party are also favorite targets of scorn.

“We are no longer allowed to buy evil Russian gas, instead we buy expensive fracking gas from the United States,” Wagenknecht said to cheers. “Suddenly environmental protection became irrelevant. Our purchasing power diminished. It's all completely crazy.”

Turning to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Wagenknecht's speech was more precise. She called for immediate peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which mostly spared him from direct criticism.

“All politicians who start war are criminals in some way,” she said. “But this applies not only to Putin, but to all American presidents who started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

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Wagenknecht, who was born in the city of Jena in eastern Germany to an Iranian father and a German mother, lives in a village near Saarbrücken with her husband, Oscar La Fontaine, a prominent former social democrat. Read more about the EU elections: Schulz visits the flood-battery zone as European Parliament vote approaches The European elections will show what voters really think about the Green Deal A stock trader's guide to navigating the EU Parliament elections

La Fontaine (80 years old) served as Prime Minister of the Saarland region and was the Social Democratic Party's candidate for Chancellor in the 1990 elections when he was defeated by Helmut Kohl.

He later became head of the Social Democratic Party and briefly served as finance minister under former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder before they had a stunning falling out. La Fontaine resigned from the government and the party and eventually ended up joining Linke.

Speaking on the sidelines of the rally, Randolph Jobst, an electrician and trained baker, said he had known Lafontaine since his early days as prime minister of the Saarland in the 1980s. He now runs a BSW branch in the area.

“The Sahara embodies a new style of politics based on realism and justice,” said the 60-year-old, who leads about 30 local members of the party. “We will grow,” he added. “And we will be different from all the other parties.”

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Wagenknecht's calls for peace in Ukraine resonate with supporters who fear the war there could turn into another global conflict.

However, there was a slightly threatening atmosphere at the march, partly because a group of pro-Palestinian protesters stormed the event. It was also a reminder that tensions in the country have escalated in recent weeks.

In their speeches, both Wagenknecht and La Fontaine singled out the Christian Democratic candidate, Roderich Kieswetter, and called for action to stop his efforts to bolster military support for the government in Kiev.

“You have to stop people like that,” Wagenknecht said. “You can't let them continue.”

Her husband told the crowd that “crazy people” like Kieswetter should be put in prison.

Five days after the demonstration, Kiesfetter, who served in the German armed forces, was attacked by a man during an election event in the southwestern region of Baden-Württemberg and sustained minor injuries. This attack was the latest in a series of violent acts. Politically related incidents. A 25-year-old Afghan-born man attacked with a knife during an election event in Mannheim last week and injured six people, including a 29-year-old policeman who died from his wounds.

On Tuesday, a politician from the Alternative for Germany party was attacked with a knife in the western German city of Mannheim, and sustained minor injuries. At the beginning of May, a politician from Schulz's Social Democratic Party was attacked by right-wing extremists in the eastern German city of Dresden. LaFontaine himself narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in 1990 when he was stabbed during an election rally.

Schulz pledged to stop the wave of political violence.

“We will fight terrorism,” Schulz said in a speech to lawmakers in Berlin on Thursday. “Without security there is nothing.”

-With assistance from Isobel Finkel.

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