In this context, the 2025 federal elections will be a full-scale test for two parties each credited, at this stage, with 17% and 7% of voting intentions. Alice Weidel and Sahra Wagenknecht will also be the heads of the list of their respective parties and at the heart of the upcoming electoral battle.
The same pro-Russia line, nuances on migration
During the long hour that this calmly televised debate lasted, Alice Weidel, recognizable by her essential white blouse, black blaser and pearl necklace, and Sahra Wagenknecht, in a dazzling yellow-green suit, tried to differentiate themselves, sometimes quite difficult. Because between their two groups – one right-wing extremist, the other combining very right-wing theses on migration matters and very left-wing ones on economic and social matters – there are many points of agreement, starting with the Ukrainian issue. Both judge that the war of Russian invasion, although“illegal” finds its roots in the “provocations from the United States and NATO”. Both condemn the sanctions against Russia and the cessation of Russian gas deliveries, which are very negative for the German economy. Same agreement on a halt to arms deliveries to Ukraine and on the need to launch peace negotiations.
Sahra Wagenknecht, the “German Mélenchon”, wants to shake up the political landscape across the Rhine
On the migration issue, central for the AfD and also major for BSW, the two leaders tried to stand out. Alice Weidel confirmed that she wanted to expel several hundred thousand foreigners from the country, believing that the right to asylum is not an unlimited right. Sahra Wagenknecht, for her part, certainly recognized “just limit immigration and send back non-integrated foreigners” but accuses the AfD of “create resentment against all foreigners”. Offensive, she also attacked Alice Weidel, whom she describes as “conservative politician” to support, within his party, far-right figures such as Björn Höcke, leader of the AfD in Thuringia. And to make it clear that his BSW training will not be able to work with the AfD as long as such people “close to neo-Nazis” will remain there. An attack to which Alice Weidel, visibly uncomfortable, refused to respond.
Frontal opposition in the Middle East
But it is perhaps the question of the conflict in the Middle East which most opposed these two female politicians, between Alice Weidel 100% behind “the right to defend oneself” of Israel and a Sahra Wagenknecht, condemning Hamas attacks but advocating a “arms embargo” to force the Israeli government to end its “war crimes” in Gaza.
Not devoid of twists and turns, this debate revealed a more offensive and more seasoned Sahra Wagenknecht… experience obliges. Aged 55, the head of BSW, from the ranks of the radical left party Die Linke, has been in politics for more than 30 years. Her competitor, ten years her junior, comes from the economic world and has been active in politics for only eleven years.
With this unprecedented debate, the television channel Welt TV in any case once again raises the question of the necessity or not of granting so much space to such polarizing populist political figures. Already in April, she had invited the very radical leader of the AfD in Thuringia, Björn Höcke, and her CDU competitor Mario Voigt. If at this stage, no other television channel has followed this example, the line could move as the next legislative elections approach.
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