Sahra Wagenknecht and her newly founded party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) (Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance) are staunch critics of any military engagement. Their election manifesto states that war foments fear and leads to instability.

As for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, they blame the United States and NATO: "A military alliance whose leading power has invaded five countries in violation of international law in recent years and killed more than 1 million people in those wars."  The BSW wants to integrate Russia into a European security architecture.

The BSW is a populist party that blends left-leaning economic policies with conservative migration and pro-Russian foreign policy initiatives.

One of the party's main topics is harsh criticism of the military aid provided by Europe and the US for Ukraine. Although foreign policy is not the remit of the federal states, Wagenknecht is scoring points with her call for a U-turn on Russia. 

In Sunday's regional elections in the eastern states of Thuringia and  Saxony the party won nearly 16% and 12% respectively. 

The demand for rapprochement with Putin's Russia is particularly successful in the eastern German states that made up the former nation of East Germany. It was closely allied with the former Soviet Union until the end of the Cold War and German reunification.

Traditional proximity to Russia

The far-right  Alternative for Germany party (AfD) is also focusing heavily on the Ukraine war in its election campaign in the eastern states. It is also calling for an end to German military aid for Ukraine. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the German Bundestag in June 2024 for more support for his country, a large number of AfD lawmakers left the building — as did members of the BSW.

AfD district chairman of Chemnitz in Saxony, Nico Köhler, told DW he felt the federal government was fawning over the Ukrainian leader. "I don't really like that," Köhler said, "because it doesn't solve anything."

He said he approves of "some members of the German Bundestag who are not in favor of constantly shoving weapons and money up his ass."

Like many AfD and BSW politicians, Köhler said he thinks Russia's attack on Ukraine was wrong, but that NATO and the US are partially to blame.

Russia — A champion for a free world?

AfD politician Björn Höcke goes particularly far in his desire for rapprochement with Vladimir Putin's Russia. Höcke is considered one of the most radical German politicians. 

In the January 2023 edition of the AfD's Maximilian Krah video debates "Dresdner Gespräche" (Dresden conversations), Höcke offered a favorable view of Russia under Putin: "Today, Russia — whether the mainstream media want to hear it or not  — is a country which not only provokes negative associations but is also a country that hopes it could possibly be a pioneer for a world of free and sovereign states without hegemonic influence."

Russia as the champion of a world of free states? Historian Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk warned against the rise of parties such as the AfD and the BSW.

"It's not that they somehow see Putin as a savior or particularly like the guy — they know that he's a bloodthirsty dictator,"  Kowalczuk told DW. Kowalczuk grew up in East Germany and is now one of the leading experts on the country's history.

Kowalczuk said he is convinced that the AfD and BSW are influenced by the policies of the totalitarian Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which ruled East Germany until German reunification. "What the AfD and BSW want to copy from Putin are, so to speak, these ideas of how to keep society in check and under control — which is a tradition in Russia — and his way of implementing this through his authoritarian state model. And that is how he sets an example."

Like Putin, the AfD and BSW reject many of the social changes of recent years. They are all skeptical of issues such as immigration and Islam and debates about gender and the LGBTQ+ movement.

This goes down well with voters in eastern Germany. In Sunday's vote, the AfD won 30% in Saxony and 31% in Thuringia.

Longing for authoritarian leadership

A large-scale study conducted by the University of Leipzig in 2023 showed that many people in eastern Germany are longing for authoritarian leadership.

Kowalczuk said he sees this as a legacy of the dictatorship: "Authoritarian systems provide a very clear framework for how you have to act. And in authoritarian regimes, if you don't rebel, if you adapt, you can live quite well."

He said many in eastern Germany see the "open society" as fueling insecurity rather than giving them new opportunities. Authoritarian politicians such as Putin and their politics of strength seem to satisfy the longing for security, for a strong leader who will define the way forward and rid them of difficult decision-making.

This is apparently also leading to a shift in the understanding of the law: Several AfD politicians are suspected of having accepted illegal funds from Russian propaganda channels and thus made themselves liable to prosecution. But this is no longer an issue in the current election campaign in Germany.

Federal government mired in controversy

The two parties also appear to be benefiting from the lack of trust in the federal government's center-left three-party coalition. In August 2024, the trio only garnered a total of 32% in nationwide opinion polls. In Thuringia and Saxony, the figure is much lower.

Even if the state elections will not have a direct impact on German foreign policy or immigration policy, the strong showing by the AfD and BSW could increase the pressure on policymakers to rethink support for Ukraine.

AfD politician Björn Höcke once promised that if he were ever to become German chancellor, his first trip abroad would not be to Washington — but to Moscow.

This article was originally written in German.

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