Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht
The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance – Reason and Justice or Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht – Reason and Justice is a German political party founded on 8 January 2024. The party was preceded by the establishment of a registered association, created on 26 September 2023 and primarily made up of former members of the German political party The Left, for the purposes of preparing the founding of the new political party. Plans for the new party were presented at a federal press conference on 23 October 2023 by Bundestag members Sahra Wagenknecht, Amira Mohamed Ali, and Christian Leye, former managing director of The Left in North Rhine-Westphalia Lukas Schön, and entrepreneur Ralph Suikat.
Namesake and central figure Sahra Wagenknecht in 2023
The Left, commonly referred to as the Left Party, is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative. Through the PDS, the party is the direct descendant of the Marxist–Leninist ruling party of former East Germany, that being the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Since 2022, The Left's co-chairpersons have been Janine Wissler and Martin Schirdewan. The party holds 28 seats out of 736 in the Bundestag, the federal legislature of Germany, having won 4.9% of votes cast in the 2021 German federal election. Its parliamentary group is the second-smallest of seven in the Bundestag, and is headed by parliamentary co-leaders Heidi Reichinnek and Sören Pellmann.
Janine Wissler (left) and Martin Schirdewan at the 2022 federal party conference
The 2022 party conference