BSW parliamentary group leader deplores the state of political culture

Saxon BSW politician Sabine Zimmermann has lamented the state of political culture and debate in Germany. In her last speech in the Saxon state parliament, the 64-year-old struck a reflective note. She recalled fierce controversies from earlier times between Franz Josef Strauß (CSU) and his SPD opponent Herbert Wehner. The two could not have been more different. "And yet they banished something that I sorely miss today: a political culture of debate that thrives on backbone and not on headlines."

Zimmermann: Parliament no longer a place for political wrangling

"People argued hard, but they argued for something and not against someone. Today, I experience the opposite and we have debates in which the greatest passion does not belong to the best solution," said Zimmermann. Today, it's more a question of who you can most skillfully stick a label on. "The people who wrestle, calculate and hope every day disappear between political buzzwords as if in a fog. Parliament, which was once the place of political struggle, often becomes a stage for permanent ideological feuds."

BSW parliamentary group leader lashes out at other parties

Zimmermann accused the left and the Greens of having "found their purpose in agitating against the right". This does not help citizens at all. The CDU is becoming smaller and smaller and must finally understand that we are no longer living in the 1990s. The SPD has moved far away from its roots. Only the "right side" of parliament is benefiting from this, she said, referring to the AfD. Politics had earned itself a bad reputation and had to ask itself why this was the case.

"When I put all this together, I see a democracy that is losing its strength because we no longer focus on people's problems, but on the ideological filter (...) A democracy that forgets who it serves has lost its compass."

Sabine Zimmermann was initially a trade unionist and SPD member after the fall of the Berlin Wall. She later sat in the Bundestag for the Left Party and headed the Committee on Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth for a while. In 2023, she left the Left Party and joined the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW). Until September of this year, she held the party chairmanship in Saxony as well as the parliamentary group chairmanship. She is retiring from politics for personal reasons. The background to this is an illness.