BSW: Putin-Trump meeting is a step forward: It makes the world a bit safer when the US and Russia talk to each other again at the highest level. Merz & Co. supports & no longer torpedoes!

Call for Gaza peace demonstration on Sept. 13 in Berlin

Sahra Wagenknecht: It was a step in the right direction that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met on Friday for direct talks on ending the war in Ukraine, economic cooperation, and security. It makes the world a safer place when the US and Russia talk to each other again at the highest level.

After three and a half years of war with hundreds of thousands dead and many more injured, peace negotiations must be the top priority. Russian troops are advancing in Ukraine, and it is realistic to recognize that Russia will not give up Crimea and the territories it has conquered. Anyone who wants to continue the war is therefore willing to accept endless death.

More than three years ago, Ukraine could have achieved a peace that was much more advantageous for it without major territorial losses. At that time, Moscow's main concern was to prevent NATO military bases and missiles aimed at Russia from being deployed in Ukraine. That remains the key to successful peace negotiations.

One can only hope that Merz & Co. will not torpedo the peace efforts again after the Alaska summit. For as long as Berlin, Paris, and London stick to their unrealistic positions, even threatening to station troops in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, Trump will hardly be able to end the war. And the longer the war rages, the greater the loss of life and the more serious the danger that a regional proxy war will turn into a world war after all.

Europeans should now strive for a European-Russian peace summit instead of continuing to comment on world events from the sidelines and blindly supporting a Ukrainian president who has less and less support among the Ukrainian population, the majority of whom finally want peace.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has announced a half-hearted arms freeze for Israel. Unfortunately, this is not a U-turn in German policy toward Israel, as some statements suggest. The export ban only applies to new arms licenses and exclusively to weapons that “could be used in Gaza.” But who is supposed to monitor that? As long as Israel's right-wing extremist government continues to bomb, starve, and expel people, nothing will be resolved. If you really want to change something, you must stop all arms exports to Israel, recognize Palestine, and enforce a permanent ceasefire and unhindered access for aid organizations.

Let's put pressure on them together!

On September 13, at 2 p.m., a large peace rally against the German government's war course will take place at the Brandenburg Gate. In a joint appeal, Dieter Hallervorden, Peter Maffay, Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, rappers Bausa and Massiv, and Sahra Wagenknecht demand: Stop the genocide in Gaza! No weapons in war zones! Peace instead of an arms race! If you support these demands, please come to the Brandenburg Gate on September 13! Germany needs a strong peace movement again.

There is good news from our party. In many federal states, committed members have founded district associations and elected district executive committees in recent weeks. Congratulations to all those elected and many thanks to the many committed members! We have thus laid the foundations for further party building and upcoming election campaigns. Every day shows that our country urgently needs a different policy, and that is what the BSW stands for.

Warm regards

Sahra Wagenknecht, Amira Mohamed Ali, and Christian Leye

 Sarah

Michael von der Schulenburg on diplomatic progress in Alaska

Our Member of the European Parliament Michael von der Schulenburg, former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, explains in the Berliner Zeitung what the lack of agreement means for Trump, Putin, and Europe, and how things can move forward now. According to him, four lessons can be learned:

First: After the US has always portrayed Putin as an international pariah in the past and pursued the goal of reducing Russia to a small regional power in the Ukraine war, Putin is now being received as the president of a major power for talks with US President Trump on equal terms in Alaska. This already symbolizes perhaps the most decisive outcome of the Ukraine war.

Second: With the direct meeting between the presidents of the US and Russia, the chances of resolving the Ukraine war diplomatically have increased significantly. The danger of the war developing into a spiral of violence and counter-violence, possibly even leading to a nuclear conflict, seems to have been averted for the time being.

Thirdly, it is almost certain that the US will withdraw militarily from the war after this meeting. Without the US, the EU states and the UK will not be able to continue the war, let alone escalate it. This will deepen the rift between the US and the EU/UK.

Fourthly, Although the US has not abandoned its demand for a ceasefire, it is signaling understanding for the need to first find a fundamental solution to the causes that led to this war.

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Sahra Wagenknecht in the Berliner Zeitung on the Trump-Putin summit: Make peace at last!

How is the supposed solidarity with Ukraine being played out on the backs of the Ukrainian civilian population? Why must the EU finally present a European peace plan? And why does Germany once again need a strong peace movement that takes its protest to the streets, for example at the rally in Berlin on September 13? Our chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht describes this in her guest commentary in the Berliner Zeitung (unfortunately behind a paywall).