Germany’s new party on the far left may eat into the far right

The newBSW MP year has not started well for Germany’s ruling “traffic-light” coalition, nor indeed for traffic. On January 8th angry farmers blocked autobahns across the country, even as train drivers called a national strike. As statisticians revealed grim final numbers for 2023—such as a 3.1% real-terms fall in retail sales from 2022—pollsters unsurprisingly found that 82% of Germans are dissatisfied with the government. A survey measuring confidence in the office of the chancellor detected a vertiginous 55-point plunge between late 2020, when Angela Merkel still reigned, and now under Olaf Scholz.Yet one person’s bad luck may prove another’s chance. Consider the case of Sahra Wagenknecht. The 54-year-old left-wing populist chose January 8th as the date to launch her new party. Right now the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance for Reason and Fairness (is the shortened German acronym), looks minuscule, with only ten s in the 736-seat Bundestag. Yet it stands to profit both from Mr Scholz’s distress and from fortuitous timing.