On the ARD talk show Wagenknecht takes a sweeping blow - she prefers not to know anything about self-criticism

Sahra Wagenknecht is combative after missing out on a place in the Bundestag. On "Maischberger", she defends her controversial leadership style and instead attacks Thuringian state leader Katja Wolf head-on.

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) was only 9500 votes short of breaking the five percent barrier in the Bundestag elections. They failed to enter parliament by the narrowest of margins - but the question of guilt has long since become an open conflict within the party. On the ARD talk show "Maischberger", Wagenknecht expressed her determination to continue her political project - and used the stage to name a clear culprit for the disappointing result: the Thuringian BSW state chairwoman Katja Wolf.

Wagenknecht, who appeared in public for the first time since the election, admitted that there had been mistakes during the election campaign.

However, she did not want to take personal responsibility for this. Instead, she referred to "mistakes that you make when you found a new party". She did not name any specific mistakes of her own - instead, she focused on the behavior of individual state associations, particularly in Thuringia.

Criticism of Wolf

Katja Wolf, former mayor of Eisenach and current finance minister in the so-called blackberry coalition, was confirmed as state chairwoman of the BSW there at the weekend - despite an explicit opposing candidacy launched by Wagenknecht's federal executive committee. The aim of the intervention: a change of personnel in order - according to Wagenknecht - to accompany the government's work in Thuringia more critically.

The accusation was that Wolf was too loyal to the government and had not sufficiently represented key election promises in the coalition negotiations. Wagenknecht laments: "Unfortunately, we have disappointed a great many voters. We lost every second one on the way to the general election."

Wagenknecht criticizes that Thuringia has delivered too little, particularly on issues such as migration, the construction of wind turbines in the forest and free school and daycare meals.

She is also dissatisfied with the way the corona period has been dealt with - the only issue where she praises Thuringia's voting behavior in the Bundesrat is on peace policy: Thuringia abstained from voting on the major rearmament package. "Other states voted in favor."

Wagenknecht left no doubt that she would have preferred to remove Katja Wolf from office - but the state party conference decided otherwise. Wagenknecht apparently does not see Wolf's re-election as a vote of confidence, but rather as evidence of a structural problem in the BSW: "The problem remains," she said meaningfully on the show.

She wants nothing to do with an authoritarian management style

Wolf is not the only critic within the party. There is also resistance to Wagenknecht's dominant leadership style in Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In Rostock, two city councillors recently resigned from the BSW and returned to the Left Party. A déjà vu: Wagenknecht was already a divisive figure in the Left Party for years. Back then, she repeatedly clashed with the party leadership - today it is her own party members who are positioning themselves against her.

However, Wagenknecht rejects the accusation of an authoritarian leadership style. On the contrary: a clear corridor of opinion is necessary for every party, she emphasized on "Maischberger". Otherwise the profile would be lost. She apparently does not see it as a problem that this corridor has so far been defined almost exclusively by herself. "I want this project to survive," she says - and immediately announces plans to sharpen the party profile, make it easier to join and even change the party name.

At the same time, the BSW wants to legally challenge the Bundestag elections and obtain a complete recount of the votes. Wagenknecht suspects irregularities - and openly speaks of a "huge election fraud" by CDU leader Friedrich Merz. Should a recount actually reach the five percent threshold, the black-red government would be without a majority.