### Reader’s Letter to The Guardian, 25th October 2024 ###
Dear Editor,
I was fascinated by Julian Coman’s article on Sahra Wagenknecht’s party, BSW (The Guardian, 24th October 2024, link below). I agree with the points made but Mr Coman’s conclusion grated somewhat: His assessment “What’s not to like? Well, quite a lot, it turns out.” left me frantically looking for the “not to like” points.
The main criticism seemed to be that Ms. Wagenknecht “is a communist” but this was negated by the admission that the new party intends to support the “Mittelstand” (SMEs), something which is pretty high on my agenda too as “The Corporates” are systematically decimating Small- and Medium-sized businesses. Everywhere!
Then we have the fact that Ms. Wagenknecht wants a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. I see no problem here as this war has gone on for far too long and even “the mainstream” are now saying that Ukraine will probably have to give up some territory in order stop the war.
Next comes the point that she is against uncontrolled migration. Indeed, but this needs to be compared with Ursula von der Leyen and most other European leaders who are busy clamoring for restrictions which often exceed the demands of the AfD (e.g. billions paid to dictators around the Mediterranean to “hold back the migrants”).
And regarding her anti-woke stance, I personally want to be judged by my actions. Not by the pronouns that I use.
Finally we have the criticism that they have not committed to “Net Zero” and yes BSW is a bit thin on environmental measures. But “mainstream” environmental policies are (anyway) mostly window-dressing, alibis and distractions or simply pie-in-the-sky (e.g. hydrogen power). This is substantiated by current figures released by UNEP showing that CO2 emissions are steadily climbing.
So my reaction would be to shorten the conclusion to “What is not to like?”
Yours,
Alan Mitcham
Link to original article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/24/sahra-wagenknecht-germany-politics-left-conservative
Link to UNEP’s Emissions Gap Report: https://www.unep.org/resources/emissions-gap-report-2024
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