Sahra Wagenknecht

Sahra Wagenknecht
MdB
Wagenknecht in 2023
Leader of
Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 January 2024
Serving with Amira Mohamed Ali
General SecretaryChristian Leye
DeputyShervin Haghsheno
Preceded byPosition established
Leader of Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht
in the Bundestag
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 December 2023
WhipJessica Tatti
DeputyKlaus Ernst
Preceded byPosition established
Leader of the Opposition
In office
12 October 2015 – 24 October 2017
Serving with Dietmar Bartsch
Preceded byGregor Gysi
Leader of The Left in the Bundestag
In office
12 October 2015 – 12 November 2019
Serving with Dietmar Bartsch
WhipJan Korte
DeputySevim Dağdelen
Caren Lay
Preceded byGregor Gysi
Succeeded byAmira Mohamed Ali
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Bundestag
for North Rhine-Westphalia
Incumbent
Assumed office
27 October 2009
Preceded bymulti-member district
ConstituencyThe Left List
Member of the European Parliament
for Germany
In office
20 July 2004 – 14 July 2009
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded bymulti-member district
ConstituencyParty of Democratic Socialism List
Personal details
Born
Sarah Wagenknecht

(1969-07-16) 16 July 1969 (age 55)
Jena, Bezirk Gera, East Germany (now Thuringia, Germany)
Political partyBSW (2023–present)
Other political
affiliations
Spouses
  • Ralph-Thomas Niemeyer
    ​
    ​
    (m. 1997; div. 2013)​
  • ​
    (m. 2014)​
ResidenceMerzig-Silwingen
EducationUniversity of Groningen
TU Chemnitz
Occupation
  • Politician
  • publicist
  • author
Signature
Websitesahra-wagenknecht.de

Sahra Wagenknecht (born Sarah Wagenknecht; German: [ˌzaːʁa ˈvaːɡŋ̍ˌknɛçt]; 16 July 1969) is a German politician, economist, author, and publicist.[1] Since 2009 she has been a member of the Bundestag, where until 2023 she represented The Left. From 2015 to 2019, she served as that party's parliamentary co-chair. With a small team of allies, she left the party on 23 October 2023 to found her own party in 2024, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, to contest elections onwards.[2]

Wagenknecht became a prominent member of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) from the early 1990s. After the foundation of The Left in 2007, she was a leading member of one of the party's most left-wing factions as leader of the Communist Platform. Her economic views shifted since then; she laid them out in her book Freedom instead of Capitalism, in which she analyses Germany’s economic policy at the time of the euro crisis and criticises it on the basis of ordoliberalism.

She has been a controversial figure throughout her career due to her hardline and populist stances, statements about East Germany, immigration and refugees (which moved away from traditional antiracism), and her political movement Aufstehen.[3][4][5] From 2020 onward Wagenknecht was less active in parliament, but often interviewed by German media. She is not a member of any parliamentary committee.[6]

Since 2021 she had openly considered forming her own party, due to growing and enduring conflicts within the Left Party and at the end of September 2023 she formed the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance political party, better known as BSW (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht), in the start of 2024.

  1. ^ "Sahra Wagenknecht: 750.000 Euro Nebeneinkünfte 2022 durch Buchhonorar und Vorträge". www.rnd.de (in German). 21 March 2023. Archived from the original on 9 January 2024. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  2. ^ Henley, Jon (23 October 2023). "German firebrand politician quits far-left Die Linke to set up her own party". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  3. ^ "German Left's Wagenknecht to stand down". Deutsche Welle. 11 March 2019. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  4. ^ "Germany's political outliers who embarrass their parties". Deutsche Welle. 6 July 2021. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  5. ^ "Sahra Wagenknecht: the uncompromising face of the Left party". Deutsche Welle. 25 August 2017. Archived from the original on 5 December 2021. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  6. ^ Dankbar, Christine (19 October 2023). "Folgen einer Wagenknecht-Partei für die Linksfraktion im Bundestag: Aus eins wird drei?". www.fr.de (in German). Archived from the original on 22 October 2023. Retrieved 20 October 2023.