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BSW Installs De Masi as Co-Leader as Wagenknecht Shifts to Values Post at Magdeburg Congress

The party plans a constitutional challenge to seek a recount of the Bundestag result.

Overview

  • Delegates elected Fabio De Masi as co-leader with 93.3 percent and reaffirmed Amira Mohamed Ali with 82.6 percent, while Sahra Wagenknecht will lead a newly created Grundwertekommission.
  • The congress approved a delayed rebrand to “Bündnis Soziale Gerechtigkeit und Wirtschaftliche Vernunft,” set to take effect in October 2026.
  • Leaders emphasized a peace-first course, rejecting conscription and further arms deliveries to Ukraine and urging renewed engagement with Russia.
  • Senior BSW figures called the AfD “firewall” a failed strategy, and De Masi said the party will join neither an anti-AfD alliance nor any coalition with the AfD.
  • Rifts with eastern state branches persisted as Thüringen and Brandenburg pragmatists faced public rebukes and failed to win vice-chair posts, even as Thüringen’s Katja Wolf appealed for better cooperation.