Dinner with the AfD at 'Compact' studio: BSW leader De Masi distances himself
All five BSW state lawmakers in Saxony-Anhalt attended the opening of a TV studio of the far-right magazine Compact, alongside AfD politicians.
Symbolic image · Photo: FalkoMD / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped and resized)
The far-right magazine Compact opened a new TV studio in Magdeburg on Oct. 8. According to t-online, guests included AfD state parliament speaker Tobias Rausch, AfD group leader Oliver Kirchner and all five members of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) group in Saxony-Anhalt's legislature, including its leaders Claudia Wittig and Thomas Schulze. Photos show them dining together.
BSW federal leader Fabio De Masi criticised the evening on X. The AfD was his party's "political opponent", and there must be no impression of "cronyism or a privileged partnership", he wrote. The BSW wanted reform of public broadcasting, "but no AfD TV". Wittig replied that people with different political views could eat together and share a glass of wine. Political scientist Johannes Varwick, a member of the BSW's core values commission, also distanced himself from the event.
Compact was banned in 2024 by then interior minister Nancy Faeser, but the Federal Administrative Court overturned the ban a year later. BSW lawmakers helped elect Rausch as parliament speaker. In the upcoming vote for state premier, the BSW plans to abstain, which could clear the way for AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund if CDU lawmakers back him.