With the founding of the “Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht – Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit” (BSW) in January 2024, a new political force has emerged in the party system of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the European elections in June 2024, the BSW already achieved 6.2 percent of the votes, representing around 2.5 million voters. In the state elections in Saxony, Thuringia, and Brandenburg, the young party immediately succeeded in entering the state parliaments and, in some cases, even participating in the government. Observers see this as a possible sign of an upcoming phase of upheaval in the German party system – even though the BSW narrowly missed entering the Bundestag in 2025.

As part of the DFG-funded research project “Establishment of the BSW: Programmatic, Personalization, and Populism,” or short EtaPPP, the team around PD Dr. Aiko Wagner is investigating whether and why the BSW is establishing itself and what impact this has on Germany's party system. Based on an analysis of the key factors of program, personalization, and populism, the project aims to identify and classify the structural and substantive conditions for the BSW's possible permanent establishment in the party system.