Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Is Germany going authoritarian-left?

Flora Baumgartner 20th November 2023

Sahra Wagenknecht’s new party has a questionable support base and doubtful prospects—like others of its kind across Europe.

The left-wing German politician Sahra Wagenknecht is launching a new party, Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht—für Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit (for reason and justice). With its likely ‘left-authoritarian’ agenda, BSW looks poised to shake up the German system.

The tables have turned. Back in 2016, Wagenknecht was leader of the opposition in the Bundestag, representing the left-wing party Die Linke. At a conference in Magdeburg, after contradicting her own party on several issues, anti-fascist protesters slapped a chocolate pie in her face.

Eight years later, Wagenknecht gave a press conference announcing the foundation of her own party. BSW is currently trouncing her previous comrades in the polls.

Attracting disgruntled voters

The development has the potential to alter radically Germany’s party system, because the new party could entice votes from almost all others. Apart from the radical left, BSW challenges the centre-left/liberal governing coalition, attracting voters disgruntled with unpopular policies and economic woes. Culturally, it competes with the main protagonist of anti-government sentiment, the radical-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), through harsh criticism of recent progressive government policies. Beyond Germany, it illustrates a wider dilemma and conflict brewing within the European left: whom to represent.

Wagenknecht pledges allegiance to a (supposedly) forgotten, under-represented voter. This voter has been left behind by fiscally conservative policy and overwhelmed by cultural changes in society. They may favour a strong welfare state with generous benefits but not a welcoming immigration scheme.

More abstractly, Wagenknecht’s target voter is an economic leftist but a cultural conservative, or even an authoritarian. Europe’s leftists have long fought over whether to prioritise this prototypical voter (the ‘left authoritarian’) over their other strong support base (voters with strongly leftist and culturally progressive views). Most radical leftist parties in Europe opted for the latter, leaving the left-authoritarians without a clear political home.

Missing left authoritarian

When citizens cannot find any political force which aligns with their views, they become alienated from the system as a whole. They are more prone to abstain from elections, to vote for populist parties and to hold negative views about democracy. And from a normative standpoint, failing to represent a large swath of people is simply not a good idea.

However, whether these voters really are a large swath of the population depends on the country. While they do represent a plurality in some countries, their share in others remains in single digits. And across western Europe, the past decade has seen a clear downward trend. The only countries with (small) increases in left authoritarians are those which had small shares to begin with. Overall, in most countries, fewer people identified with left-authoritarian standpoints in 2019 than in 2009 (Figure 1):

Figure 1: share of left-authoritarian voters

Share of left-authoritarian voters, 2009 (purple) and 2019 (green)
2009 values taken from research article by Zoe Lefkofridi and others; 2019 values: own calculation using most similar measures from same data source (European Election Study)

Strikingly, the under-representation of left authoritarians is not a universal phenomenon; rather, it is primarily western European. Central and eastern Europeans have known plenty of such parties since democratisation. Among the region’s radical-leftist parties, communists in Moldova and the Czech Republic remain staunch authoritarians, just like the communists in Ukraine (before their ban in 2015). And the social-democratic parties of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, among others, run on authoritarian platforms.

However, most authoritarian radical-leftist parties have lost voters in recent years. In the Czech Republic, the communists recently lost all their seats in parliament. In Moldova, they merged with the social democrats to avoid the same fate.

Some of their western-European counterparts do not focus strongly on cultural progressivism. These parties are not doing too well, either. The communists of Greece and Portugal have remained in mid-single digits in recent elections. The Dutch Socialist Party vote has stagnated and declined since 2006 (with a recent poll plummeting to about 3 per cent). All in all, for those parties already trying to appeal to left authoritarians, the recipe is not working well (Figure 2).

Figure 2: vote shares of radical-left parties—2004 versus 2021

Vote shares of radical-lef parties: 2004 vs 2021
Votes: own compilation based on national election offices; cultural positions: Chapel Hill Expert Survey 2019 ratings (GAL/TAN scale), 0-4 progressive, 4-6 ambiguous/moderate, 6-10 authoritarian (Moldova cultural position ratings from EPAC expert survey 2017, same thresholds)

Crowded field

Some recent polls predict a hopeful start for Wagenknecht’s new party, with figures in the lower double digits. However, this is well below the high hopes suggested by tantalising earlier polls.

BSW is currently a ‘registered association’; the party has yet to be formally founded. At this stage, it remains centred around Wagenknecht’s persona rather than operating on a clear policy platform. But we can assume BSW’s positions will largely match those of Wagenknecht in the past. These were hardline economic leftism combined with a restrictive immigration policy, conservative views on social issues and strong populist language.

For one thing, it is far from certain whether left authoritarianism is here to stay among voters (even if Germany is an exception, having experienced a slight increase over the past decade). Moreover, left-authoritarian parties have declined even faster than the people who vote for them. Hence, it is not a given that left-authoritarian voters will automatically rally behind a similar party.

Lastly, in terms of populism, the party is not unique. Populist parties, most prominently on the right, have mushroomed across Europe. Wagenknecht’s new party is entering a crowded field on the populist and cultural right, and it is unclear whether there remains much of an authoritarian field on the left. And as many other former hopefuls across Europe will attest, it is hard to maintain a party on the basis of populism alone.

This article was originally published at The Loop and is republished here under a Creative Commons licence

Flora Baumgartner
Flora Baumgartner
Flora Baumgartner is a research assistant in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Konstanz. Her research interests centre on party families, electoral politics and multidimensional positions, social policy and political economy.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang
u421983441e313714135 0 Why Europe Needs Its Own AI InfrastructureDiane Coyle
u42198346ecb10de1ac 2 Europe Day with New DimensionsLászló Andor and Udo Bullmann
u421983467a362 1feb7ac124db 2 How Europe’s Political Parties Abandoned Openness—and Left Populism to Fill the VoidColin Crouch
u4219834678 41e5 9f3e dc025a33b22c 1 Funding the Future: Why the EU Needs a Bold New BudgetCarla Tavares

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641