BSW rows over closeness to AfD: party wing demands a "fresh start"
A wing around board member Ralf Krämer calls any closeness to the AfD unacceptable and wants a fresh start at the party congress in Dresden in late November.
Graphic: TERRA WORLD NEWS (own graphic based on the sources listed)
The dispute within the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) over how to deal with the AfD is escalating. A wing around federal board member Ralf Krämer says "any kind of collusion and fraternisation with the AfD" is unacceptable, the taz reports. The group wants a "fresh start" at the federal party congress in Dresden at the end of November.
The trigger was a joint dinner of BSW and AfD representatives at an event of the far-right magazine Compact in Saxony-Anhalt. Lower Saxony BSW leader Holger Onken called the conduct a "disaster". Claudia Wittig, the party's most prominent figure in the state, admitted a mistake: "Something like this will not happen again." General secretary Oliver Ruhnert called the pictures "not good" but dismissed claims of closeness to ethnic-nationalist positions as "complete humbug".
According to the leadership's main motion, the five BSW members of Saxony-Anhalt's state parliament will abstain in December's vote for state premier and will not back AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund. However, according to former deputy federal chair Marlon Borchers, parts of the party's youth wing want to cooperate with the AfD's youth organisation.