Wolfgang Streeck critiques the ailments present

In a speech at the 2024 conference of the conspiratorial party Die Basis, renowned sociologist Wolfgang Streeck positioned the nation-state and sovereignty as "weapons of the weak against the strong," suggesting they are denied or restricted by the "empire," the USA. This stance, along with his critical view of capitalism, has made Streeck a figure of fascination for various political camps in Germany.

Streeck's unique appeal lies in his ability to combine sharp critiques of capitalism appreciated by the left with a glorification of the nation-state that resonates with right-wing and neoreactionary groups. This dual appeal has positioned him as an "organic intellectual" not only for left critics but also for right-wing and conspiracy groups, reflecting the intellectual and ideological fragmentation within a once unified leftist environment.

In his writings, Streeck legitimizes cross-front activities and establishes a new main contradiction, portraying the latest modernity as a contrast to a lost state, to which one must return through a return to the national. This perspective is evident in his call for a "conservative revolution" at a 2023 lecture at the Library of Conservatism, a central think tank of the New Right in Germany.

However, Streeck's stance on societal issues such as anti-discrimination work and issues of sexual orientation or non-binarity has been criticized as ironically regressive, falling back on natural concepts that legitimize societal inequalities.

In the "New Left Review," Streeck lamented the election result of the BSW and the reasons why workers voted for the AfD, reproducing the right-wing narrative of the AfD as a social party. This move, along with his appearances at Die Basis and interviews with neofascists like Benedikt Kaiser in far-right publications, has raised concerns about Streeck's political boundaries.

Streeck's democratic concept of national sovereignty and homogeneity approaches the neo-right ideology from the former social democratic milieu. He has also been criticized for downgrading the climate crisis from a global survival issue to a mere moral question, ridiculing necessary city adaptations and dismissing climate protection as a "religion."

In an article published in "Freitag" in 2024, Streeck used the right-wing propaganda term "unlimited immigration" against empirical reality, ignoring the tightening of asylum law in Germany in autumn 2015 and subsequent European measures. He also called for a "multipolar world order" with a non-aligned Europe in an article about the Ukraine war, likely to please the Europe strategists of the New Right.

Despite these controversies, right-wing cultural fighters appreciate Streeck's perspective and see him as unorthodox and rebellious when he gives lectures in the neo-right milieu. His movement between milieus and his indifference to whether his critical examination is "at home on the 'right' or the 'left'" has earned him a reputation as a border-crosser who symbolically marks fractures in the formerly leftist milieu.

This complex political journey of Wolfgang Streeck, from a critic of capitalism to an advocate of a conservative revolution, raises questions about the evolving political landscape in Germany and the potential for ideological fragmentation within once unified political groups.