Historian Heinrich August Winkler warns of the growing influence of the AfD and the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) alliance on German foreign policy. He called on politicians from the CDU and SPD not to "fall into Wagenknecht's trap" when considering coalitions at state level. AfD and BSW are two deeply anti-Western parties, Winkler told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND). "Both fundamentally question Germany's ties to the West, a core element of the German reason of state. If it were up to them, Germany's foreign policy would in future be oriented more towards the East than the West."
The "state-supporting pro-Western parties" would be "well advised to proactively counter the anti-Western agitation of the AfD and BSW and denounce their peace propaganda for what it is: support for Putin's war of aggression against Ukraine", warned the historian. Coalitions with the AfD are not up for debate, but those with the BSW certainly are. However, it is an illusion to believe that a coalition with the BSW at state level would have no influence on federal policy.
