| BSW Group | |
| Native Name: | Gruppe BSW im Bundestag |
| Leader: | Sahra Wagenknecht |
| Website: | https://bsw-bt.de/ |
| Registered: | 2 February 2024 |
| Founder: | Sahra Wagenknecht |
| Split: | The Left faction (Bundestag) |
The BSW group is a group in the 20th German Bundestag whose members belong to the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW for short) party. All ten members of the group were previously in the Die Linke fraktion, which was dissolved in December 2023. The BSW group was recognized as a group on 2 February 2024.[1]
The group currently has ten members, including the former parliamentary group leader of the Left Party in the Bundestag Amira Mohamed Ali, the former party leader of the Left Party Klaus Ernst and the former deputy party leader and penultimate parliamentary group leader of the Left Party Sahra Wagenknecht:[2]
| Member | Committee work | |
|---|---|---|
| Klaus Ernst | Committee on Home Affairs | |
| Jessica Tatti | Council of Elders and Committee for Labor and Social Affairs (Deputy Member) | |
| Andrej Hunko | Health Committee, EU Affairs Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee (Substitute Member) | |
| Amira Mohamed Ali | Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection and Legal Affairs Committee | |
| Alexander Ulrich | Committee on Labor and Social Affairs | |
| Ali Al-Dailami | Committee on Education, Research and Technology Assessment | |
| Christian Leye | Budget Committee | |
| Sevim Dağdelen | Foreign Affairs Committee | |
| Żaklin Nastić | Defence Committee and Committee on Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth | |
| Sahra Wagenknecht |
After a long dispute over direction within the Left Party, Sahra Wagenknecht, together with nine other members of the Bundestag, left the Left Party on October 23, 2023, but remained in the Left faction for the time being. On November 14, 2023, the dissolution of the Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag was decided for December 6, 2023. On December 6, 2023, the parliamentary group was dissolved. On February 2, 2024, the BSW and Left groups were recognized.
The BSW members stayed away from the speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the German Bundestag in June 2024. In a statement by the BSW group, the reason given was that President is currently helping to "promote a highly dangerous spiral of escalation" and is "accepting the risk of a nuclear conflict with devastating consequences for the whole of Europe." Everything must be done to ensure that the conflict does not escalate "into a major European war" and that Germany does not become a party to the war. Zelensky "should not be honoured with a special event in the German Bundestag".[3] Chancellor Olaf Scholz and opposition leader Friedrich Merz sharply criticized the BSW for its absence and viewed it as a lack of respect. Politicians from the Left also criticized the BSW for this.