The BSW party (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht) promised to stop the far-right represented by the AfD in Germany, but is now preparing to abstain on the budget vote and let the AfD govern the state of Saxony-Anhalt. This position represents a capitulation to the far-right party.
The article draws parallels with other center-left European parties that have also capitulated to the right. Danish social democracy ended up having its worst electoral result since 1903, while the English Labour Party lost its leader, suggesting that this strategy of approaching or capitulating to the far-right has not brought political success.
The article's author presents this capitulation as a norm that is forming in various European left-wing parties, but which results in electoral and political losses. The pattern that emerges is one of center-left parties that, in trying to compete with the right or far-right through capitulations, end up losing their identity and support base.
Wagenknecht was, according to the article, destined for defeat precisely because she was destined for capitulation. The author considers this the worst kind of defeat, for being one that gives up on truly fighting far-right parties instead of clearly opposing them.
