Left tip missing from Wagenknecht's call for "demarcation to the right"

The leaders of the left remain critical of their party colleague Sahra Wagenknecht's call for a demonstration for peace in Ukraine on February 25. "Specifically, we lack the clear demarcation to the right in the call, which immediately leads to well-known Nazis and right-wing organizations supporting this call and mobilizing massively for the demo on the 25th," said Federal Managing Director Tobias Bank on Monday in Berlin.

Instead, party members are called upon to take part in decentralized protests around the anniversary of the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The core demands are the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, but also that "instead of rearmament, the federal government must finally break the spiral of escalation," said Bank.

Wagenknecht, together with the feminist Alice Schwarzer, had called for the demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate. The initiators were accused last week of not clearly distinguishing themselves from the right and the AfD.

Wagenknecht had rejected this criticism and explained: "It goes without saying that right-wing extremists, who stand in the tradition of a regime that started the worst world war in living memory, have no place at a peace demonstration."

Those who defame their call as "right-wing" forget that "it is not the call for peace, but the support of militarism and war that has been the hallmark of right-wing politics for ages".

Wagenknecht and Schwarzer had also started a petition called "Manifesto for Peace" calling for negotiations in the Russo-Ukrainian war. The appeal has now been signed by more than 500,000 people.