ZDF documentary about Wagenknecht – Holy Sahra

“I’m so attacked inside,” breathes a medieval man with a full beard and braids, face to face with his political idol. A younger man beams with happiness: “I talked to her for a minute,” he says, proudly showing his cell phone with which he recorded the encounter. They are not the only ones who are worried about finding true love and winning the lottery at the same time. It’s just about one politician: Sahra Wagenknecht.

“Inside Alliance Wagenknecht” is the name of the ZDF documentary, which, according to the broadcaster, provides “exclusive insights into the BSW”, the “Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht”. You won’t learn anything new of particular importance. A ZDF team was able to accompany the former icon of the Left Party for a year. But anyone who leads a cadre party that is tailored to their needs and only has around 500 hand-picked members knows that a look behind the scenes will not reveal anything really critical.

From backbencher to start-up boss

ZDF has processed the observation of the solo political entertainer with left- and right-wing radical traits into a five-part series. With a total length of 178 minutes. A 90-minute version will be shown in prime time on ZDF in mid-October; The series is already available in the media library. It is a tribute to the woman who always caused trouble and unrest in her old party, the Left, and who will now finally destroy the Left and fundamentally change the German party system.

Wagenknecht has achieved what many politicians strive for: it is an established political “brand”. This is not least because the public broadcasters in particular have always treated her as if she were one of the most important political players. It is therefore ridiculous that Wagenknecht and her disciples of all people complain in the series about the public service’s concerns for “one-sided opinion formation” at the expense of the BSW.

In fact, after she resigned from the parliamentary group leadership of the Left in 2019, Wagenknecht was only a backbencher without any significant influence on political events. Without her constant presence on the ARD and ZDF talk shows, she would hardly have had a chance as a party founder. But now – after considerable success in the European elections and three state elections in the East – they can drive the CDU and SPD ahead of them in three countries. This corresponds to their considerable destructive nature.

Always queues of people

Nothing about this appears in the documentation. Here Wagenknecht is celebrated as a political star. In a way, ZDF is celebrating itself and its contribution to the most notable party political start-up in the history of the Federal Republic. It fits that you constantly see more or less the same thing: queues of people at their readings, queues of people at the meeting of BSW supporters. These are people who have not yet been deemed worthy of being accepted into the BSW, but are already allowed to campaign for Wagenknecht.

The recurring passages include “standing ovations” – for the best-selling author and for the party leader. Also to be seen all the time are all Sahra worshipers who crowd around her as if they could eliminate all the evils of the world by laying on of hands. In addition, there are always the same beliefs along the lines that if the evil West finally stops supplying Ukraine with weapons, Putin could finally satisfy his longing for peace.

In places, the 178 minutes of “Holy Sahra” are certainly informative, for example when an applicant for BSW membership is exposed as an AfD politician from Bremen. Or how the BSW denies membership to someone whose main job is working for an AfD mayor. This shows that the BSW’s fears that – as with all new party formations – the wrong people could join it were and are not unfounded. In this context, Wagenknecht speaks of “difficult people” who have already “been through three parties” and are “destructive”. Well: She herself is already in the third party after the SED and PDS/Left. Her ex-comrades from the Left Party will happily confirm that it can be destructive.

That’s just not how the whole thing was designed

Many journalists and other political experts have their say in “Inside Alliance Wagenknecht”. The assessments of the sociologist Steffen Mau, who deals intensively with the mentality of East Germans, are particularly interesting. He calls the BSW a “polarization company” that combines “left and right populism with left-wing authoritarianism.” He is particularly harsh on the BSW’s limitation to a few members. Having members means being able to distribute power and positions better: 50 members determine a state list of 30 candidates, 15 of which could expect a mandate.

Regardless of the decidedly pro-Wagenknecht tendency, there is no lack of critical objections from the experts already mentioned. For example, the quarrels in the Saarland BSW regional association, where husband Oskar Lafontaine is pulling the strings, are not kept quiet. He is allowed to pass his wife “the bag” every now and then when he drops her off at the airport. What is striking, however, is that Wagenknecht is hardly ever interviewed by the authors of the documentary. Only occasionally is she asked “off-camera” for a review. However, she is never questioned harshly. That’s just not how the whole thing was designed.

Wagenknecht knows what they owe to broadcasters like ZDF. So she, the actually aloof one, allows photos of how she cleverly puts her hair in the Rosa Luxemburg look. If you want to understand the tenor of the “documentary”, you just have to look at the end. Wagenknecht strides majestically along a long dirt road towards the horizon. The only thing missing is the right music by Udo Lindenberg: “Behind the horizon it continues / a new day. Behind the horizon ever further / together we are strong.”

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