Sahra Wagenknecht, My Political Queen

The New Center: A Wednesday Newsletter From Sohrab Ahmari

New Left Review’s publication of an extended and illuminating interview with the heterodox German social-democrat Sahra Wagenknecht has stirred up the leftist hive. Wagenknecht is a bad person, you see, who strays from progressive dogma on crucial points, especially immigration. Predictably, most of those reproaching NLR for “platforming” a bad person decline to tackle the substance of her ideas. It’s enough to signal on “X” that one has noticed NLR platforming a bad person.

I adore Sahra Wagenknecht. A former leader of Germany’s Die Linke (Left) party, she is among the most important and promising active lawmakers in the democratic West today. Recently, Wagenknecht has launched her own movement, the Reason and Justice Alliance, to promote a political vision we desperately need: what she calls “left conservatism” or “conservative leftism.”