Name dispute in the BSW: country heads with new proposal

In the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance, there is dissatisfaction with the party leadership's proposal for a new name - and there is a counter-proposal: BSW should stand for "Citizens Create Change - Reason and Justice" in future, suggested the Rhineland-Palatinate state chairmen Alexander Ulrich and Sina Listmann. According to their own statements, they followed an idea of the Saxon state leader Ronny Kupke.

"We believe that this name will signal a much greater departure than the previous proposal," they wrote in a letter to the BSW Federal Executive Board, which is available to the German Press Agency.

Abschied vom Namen der Gründerin

This week, the party leadership decided on the variant "Bündnis Soziale Gerechtigkeit und Wirtschaftliche Vernunft" (Alliance for Social Justice and Economic Reason). In any case, the abbreviation BSW is to remain. A party conference in Magdeburg at the beginning of December will have the final say. The Rhineland-Palatinate state executive is in favor of presenting both variants there.

Founder Sahra Wagenknecht had already declared some time ago that her name should only stand for the party on a transitional basis. The official name has so far been "BSW - Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht - Reason and Justice". According to the party, there were thousands of suggestions for the name change.

Personnel tableau on Monday

On Monday, the party leadership will also announce who will lead BSW, which was founded in 2024, in the future. Founder and current national chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht has left it open as to whether she will remain at the helm of the party and only emphasized that she wants to continue to be involved in BSW in a "leading position".

It remains to be seen whether the party can score points without personalization and without Wagenknecht's name. The BSW was successful in the 2024 European elections and the East German state elections, but narrowly failed to reach the five percent hurdle in the Bundestag elections this spring. In Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin, the BSW will be fighting to enter state parliaments next year.