The Landtag of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt officially adopted a resolution calling on Germany to stop aid to Ukraine. In addition, the right and the left in the state parliament called on its current head Sven Schulze to speak in the Bundesrat for peace negotiations with Russia.
The far-right “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) and the left-populist “Sarah Wagenknecht Alliance” (BSW) on Wednesday joined forces to pass a symbolic resolution in the Landtag of the state of Saxony-Anhalt calling for an end to Berlin’s military support for Ukraine. The Reuters agency notes that the proposal was put forward on the day the trial began in Hamburg of a former Ukrainian serviceman accused of sabotaging the “Nord Stream” gas pipeline, through which Russian gas was supplied to Germany.
Although the adopted resolution has no practical significance, since state parliaments do not participate in the foreign policy of the FRG, thanks to it the parties can reach an agreement that will allow the local AfD leader Ulrich Siegmund to form a state government. In September the AfD won its largest victory in the elections in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, falling just short of an absolute majority.
Other parties in the state parliament refused to enter into a coalition with the AfD because of the so-called firewall policy aimed at isolating the far-right party. Although the BSW also does not want to enter into an official coalition with the AfD, the left and the right share common goals — restoring ties with Moscow and fighting immigration. As Reuters notes, the BSW split off from the far-left party “The Left,” whose roots go back to the former Communist Party of East Germany.
“The firewall policy has not worked. Now we will form policy based on the changing balance of forces and advance as many points of the BSW program as possible,” said BSW founder Sarah Wagenknecht.
Both the AfD and the BSW sharply criticize the support that Germany provides to Kyiv. They believe that this prolongs the conflict and call for redirecting funds for Ukraine to the internal needs of the FRG, Reuters writes. “What has happened over the past few months and years in the course of [the Ukrainian conflict], along with uncontrolled migration [in Germany], is one of the biggest problems of our time,” Siegmund said during the debates.
