German populist politician Sahra Wagenknecht, whose newly founded Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party debuted with 6.2% of the vote in the European Parliament elections, renewed calls on Tuesday for a halt to aid to Ukraine.
“We need ceasefire negotiations instead of more taxpayer money from Germany for weapons to prolong the war,” Wagenknecht said on Tuesday, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was in Berlin for an international conference on Ukraine’s reconstruction .
Wagenknecht accused Zelensky of refusing negotiations so far, but said Germany has already paid a “war bill” of “at least 53 billion euros.”
“Instead of financing destruction and reconstruction alternately, we need a peace conference with all parties at the table,” she said.
Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently occupies about a fifth of Ukrainian territory.
Wagenknecht, a former leader of the far-left party Die Linke, split to form her own populist party, whose politics combine left-wing social policies with anti-immigration positions and EU skepticism.
