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Wagenknecht Steps Back as BSW Installs New Leaders and Rebrands at Contentious Congress

The shake-up aims to revive a fast-growing yet fractious movement that narrowly missed the Bundestag.

Overview

  • Delegates elected Fabio De Masi as co-chair with 93.3% of the vote and confirmed Amira Mohamed Ali with 82.6%.
  • Sahra Wagenknecht relinquished the chair to lead a newly created basic values commission, retaining a reduced formal role.
  • The party approved renaming itself “Bündnis für soziale Gerechtigkeit und wirtschaftliche Vernunft” while keeping the BSW initials, with the change slated for next year.
  • Former Union Berlin executive Oliver Ruhnert was chosen as secretary-general as leaders pledged growth and pressed a nationwide recount campaign after the narrow federal defeat.
  • Deep splits flared over ties to the AfD and state governing in Thuringia and Brandenburg, with Thuringian delegates sidelined and De Masi deriding an AfD firewall as “plemplem.”