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Left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht
Photo: Monika Skolimowska / dpa
The left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht is filing a complaint against unknown persons because of a fake website, as her office announced at the request of SPIEGEL. The background to this is the recently launched website www.bswpartei.de, which in its imprint lists Wagenknecht's Bundestag office as the author and is also illustrated with photos of the politician.
Among other things, the official website advertises for members, supporters and donations for a new party of the Left politician.
According to publicly available registration data, the domain was only recently acquired and belongs to a marketing company based in the district of Mettmann. Their boss, a 21-year-old entrepreneur from Rhineland-Palatinate, denied having anything to do with the website when asked. He could not explain how the name of his company ended up in the registration data – it is possible that someone had misused the company name.
According to reports from Wagenknecht's entourage, the real domain of the new party www.Buendnis-Sahra-Wagenknecht.de to be launched on Monday. On this day, Wagenknecht and other comrades-in-arms from the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag are to present their new project in Berlin. Wagenknecht's office declined to comment.
The planned press event in the House of the Federal Press Conference is about the founding of the association "BSW – For Reason and Justice e.V.", which was recently established in Wagenknecht's immediate environment. The abbreviation stands for "Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht". To this end, a substantive document will also be presented, it is said, a kind of draft program. In addition, Wagenknecht will also give a "clear outlook" on the founding of the party, for which the association is to serve.
Monday's announcement is likely to end a years-long dispute between Wagenknecht and her Left Party. Wagenknecht joined the SED in 1989 and was later a member of the PDS and the Left Party. Since the <>s, there have been repeated disputes in the party about Wagenknecht and her substantive positions. In recent years, Wagenknecht has accused the Left Party above all of failing to serve the interests of the electorate with its focus on sea rescue or gender equality – and thus also of having helped the AfD to gain momentum. With her new project, she now wants to reach precisely these groups of voters.
Editor's note: This report has been supplemented by the statement of the entrepreneur from Rhineland-Palatinate. The website is now offline.
til/srö