Firewall | Not everyone in the BSW likes flirting with rights

In autumn 2024, Doreen Voigt (r.) was part of the BSW negotiating group that explored the possibilities for a "blackberry" alliance with the CDU and SPD in Saxony Photo: dpa/Robert Michael In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD is likely to have the first president of a state parliament starting next week. With MP Tobias Rausch, a representative of a right-wing extremist party will most likely be elected to such an office for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic.

In Thuringia, where the AfD had already become the strongest force in a state parliament in autumn 2024, corresponding ambitions failed due to the united resistance of all other parties. In Saxony-Anhalt, however, a breach is being made in the fire wall by the BSW. The party, which barely cleared the five percent hurdle, has announced that it will co-elect an AfD state parliament president. Together, both parties make up 44 of the 83 MPs.

The Wagenknecht party doesn't just stop at selective flirtations. In fact, she was the only one to accept the AfD's offer of exploratory talks for a future government. The magazine “Focus” reports on discussions in a “good, productive atmosphere” and notes that the chief negotiators Ulrich Siegmund and Claudia Wittich have already reached a “first name”.

This open flirtation with the AfD is of course not without controversy in the BSW and is now causing the first disengagement movements in Saxony after Thuringia. There, Leipzig MP Doreen Voigt resigned from the state parliamentary group. The 42-year-old social worker told the regional newspapers of the Editorial Network Germany (RND) that her candidacy was "based on the idea that the BSW is positioning itself as an opponent and social alternative to the AfD in order to prevent the AfD from gaining a majority." She commented on her resignation by saying that she wanted to be able to look in the mirror early in the morning.

Before entering politics, Voigt worked as a consultant at the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband. On the state list for the state elections in Saxony in September 2024, in which the BSW immediately became the third strongest force with 11.8 percent, the newcomer was placed third behind the two state chairmen. However, she never became a BSW member. Contrary to BSW parliamentary group leader Ronny Kupke's demands, she wants to keep her mandate and work in parliament as a non-attached member in the future.

Kupke rejected the accusation that the BSW had “changed its position” towards the AfD. This is “like the other parties in parliament, our political competitor.” At the same time, however, one should not allow “the old parties” to impose their “failed strategy” in dealing with the party. "Anyone who doesn't start rethinking how to deal with the party given an election result of 44 percent for the AfD in the neighboring country can no longer be helped," explained Kupke.

"We were not elected to tolerate flirtations with right-wing radicals."

In Saxony, the BSW had canceled exploratory talks with the CDU and SPD for a "blackberry coalition" and is now involved in a consultation mechanism through which the black-red minority government secures changing majorities.

At the same time, the party repeatedly made common cause with the AfD. Shortly after the state election, their proposal for a committee of inquiry into Corona was approved, and later also a proposal against the stationing of US medium-range missiles, on which there was only one abstention among the 15 BSW MPs. In May 2026, an incident caused a stir in which the AfD and BSW, in an apparently concerted action, helped an application from the Greens gain a majority and thus duped them and the coalition.

The course with a view to a possible government formation in Saxony-Anhalt has now escalated the differences in the BSW. In Thuringia, the resignation of a large group of representatives from the BSW and its two ministers was recently justified by the former state chairwoman Katja Wolf by saying that they were not elected for "endless self-employment, constant defensive battles and putting up with flirtations with right-wing radicals."

The BSW is no longer part of the state government in Thuringia, nor is it in Brandenburg, where all of its ministers left the party at the beginning of 2026. Oliver Skopec, the sixth member of the once 14-member parliamentary group, recently resigned from the federal state. However, he explained that his step had nothing to do with the fact that the BSW in Saxony-Anhalt might want to make Ulrich Siegmund the AfD's first prime minister.

It remains to be seen whether this will happen. The BSW federal chairwoman Amira Mohamed Ali recently emphasized again that they would "under no circumstances" enter into a coalition with the AfD and would neither elect a prime minister from the CDU (which of course does not want to put forward any candidates) nor one from the AfD. If the BSW abstains in a third round of voting, Siegmund would be dependent on at least one other MP not voting against him to obtain the simple majority required. The AfD has 39 MPs, as many as the CDU, SPD, Greens and Left combined. The BSW provides five.

The AfD leader is confident. He recently stated on the short message service X that there was “hope and confidence.” The conversations turned out to be complicated. But he assumes that there will be a state government by November or December and "we can appoint the Prime Minister."

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