ALLIANCE SAHRA WAGENKNECHT: European elections "A really, really great success for us!" Mohamed Ali

And I am now joined by Amira Mohamed Ali, co-chair of the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, or BSW for short. Good afternoon, Ms Mohamed Ali. Good day! Right off the bat you got 6.2% nationwide and even 13.1% in East Germany. That is, the expectation of the BSW. Are high. How do you want to fulfill these? Yes, of course this is a really, really great success for us. And that shows that there is a great need for a different policy. And we are campaigning in the European Parliament for what we campaigned for in the election campaign. And of course this primarily concerns the fact that we want to try to influence foreign policy to change. The fact that there is more focus on diplomacy and relaxation is a very important point. And another point is that we believe that the EU urgently needs to be reformed. What we are experiencing at the moment is, above all, a lobby quagmire - backroom politics that is non-transparent and that does not lead to greater prosperity in Europe as a whole, but which primarily pays into the coffers of the strongest, strongest lobbies the arms industry, the pharmaceutical industry, then the big corporations. And we urgently need to get there. And we want this policy in Brussels. But what role does your co-chair Sahra Wagenknecht actually play? So was it more of a choice of people or was it the BSW's program? Well, I think both. Sahra Wagenknecht clearly stands for the politics that we as BSW also stand for. And we decided, quite consciously, to name our party after Sahra Wagenknecht. That is the case now. In the future, after the federal election, we will take a different approach. But many people associate Sahra with a certain politics, a politics of reason. Sahra Is also someone who is really like that, who many people trust to say what she thinks or do what she says. And we all stand together as an example of this. Do you actually see yourself as more of a protest party or do you actually want to approach the other parties to explore possible coalitions? Let's look at East Germany, for example. You are the third strongest force. Yes, I think that our election results also show that overall there is a great deal of dissatisfaction with the government's policies. You can see that because the current government is actually doing a particularly bad job. So we are being governed very badly in Germany at the moment and you can see that, as you can see in this election result, which is a great dissatisfaction and we as BSW want to say, both in state elections and in the European elections. Of course, we are prepared to act responsibly and also to take on responsibility. And we are also open to discussions. But there will still be open discussions after the state elections for the formation of appropriate factions, and for appropriate coalition formation, including cooperation with the extreme right, with the AfD. We do not do that. And otherwise we are open to discussions with the Greens. We really can't imagine it at the moment because politics is really taking a completely different direction than the one we think is right. But it is clear to us that we are not a majority procurer. We don't just do this because we want to get to the pots of power, but we stand for exactly what we were elected for . And that is also a very important point. So I think a lot of people are really fed up with parties that promise a lot before election day. And no sooner is it a matter of distributing positions than suddenly all the ideals are gone and you only do that to maintain power. We'll do that. Ms Mohamed Ali, if I understand you correctly, you are also in favor of new elections in the Bundestag after these European elections. Because we see that we still have a year until September next year of red, green, yellow. And the traffic lights had such a catastrophic result. So do you think now is really the time? just like in France, nationally in Germany too? So I think so . So you can actually see that there is less and less support among the population for the politics of this traffic light government and I would like there to be new elections and, especially when it comes to foreign policy, that the population can decide again which course she would like. Because I am of the opinion that the traffic light government, but also the Union, it must be said, has taken a very dangerous course, which, among other things, has now been released, also fired with German weapons from Ukraine into Russian territory can be. This war threatens to escalate further and that would really be a catastrophe for Germany, for Europe and also for the entire world. Because Russia, you simply have to acknowledge, is a nuclear power, in fact the largest nuclear power in the world. And further escalation here is a very dangerous course and I would like us to take a different course, namely towards a policy of détente. You have just made a clear distinction from the AfD. But it is precisely the AfD that is taking this course that we have to negotiate with Russia and that we need a new Ukraine policy. And the AfD has made significant gains despite the scandals and affairs. And even though they have now kicked Maximilian Krah out of the European delegation, i.e. the AfD, you still see them as a major threat to Germany, but also to Europe with the other right-wing parties, which have also made significant gains. The AfD is a party that has right-wing extremists and Nazis in its ranks. And the leadership tolerates this and these are people who, in my opinion, actually want to attack very fundamental things in our constitutional state. And we really think that’s fundamentally wrong. That means if the AfD splits further and at some point gets into the situation that it gets an absolute majority, which can happen in some areas, I'm terrified of that because I have no certainty at all that these people, like... said right-wing extremists in their ranks that they actually want to continue to preserve our democracy and the rule of law. I have great doubts that this is the case. And that's why I think it's a danger. What the AfD does, yes, but he also represents his politics for the super-rich. So if you look at which population group would benefit the most if the AfD also wants the economic and social policy things if they were implemented, then that is the richest percent of the population. So they would also take an ax to our welfare state. So if you erode it even further, it's not in a good condition at the moment. And that is also something we strictly reject. Amira Mohamed Ali, the chairwoman of the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, after her success in the European elections. Thank you, Ms Mohamed Ali, for this interview.