Party founder Sahra Wagenknecht will not receive the Lionheart Peace Prize 2024 after all. The award ceremony announced for August has been cancelled, according to the organization Human Projects, which has been awarding the prize since 2016. Previous winners include singer-songwriter Konstantin Wecker, former Soviet head of state Michael Gorbachev and the Dalai Lama.
Wagenknecht had asked for the award ceremony in Leipzig to be postponed until November, explained organizer Karsten Enz. The head of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) justified this by saying that she saw "the ceremony as a potential threat to her success in the state elections taking place in September".
"Of course we can't do that," Enz told the German Press Agency. "Then it doesn't fit together." The Peace Prize will therefore not be awarded this year. This is also out of respect for the achievements of the previous prizewinners for peace and reconciliation.
Criticism of entrance fees
Wagenknecht rejected the claim on request: "Of course, I did not ask for a postponement because the awarding of the Lionheart Prize would have had a negative impact on the BSW election campaign in Saxony." The issue of peace is central to the BSW. However, the organization of the event was "not convincing". Above all, the relatively high ticket prices were "difficult to explain for a public appearance by me one week before the state elections".
The fact that Wagenknecht was to receive the award was announced in January. Last year, the singer of the band Die Prinzen, Sebastian Krumbiegel, had turned down the award. The journalist Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, who was also selected at the time, then received the award.
The aid organization Human Projects, based in Baden-Württemberg, awards the "Lionheart" prize to people who are particularly committed to a peaceful world. The task of the award winners is to select a project that works against poverty, hunger, thirst and violence and to donate the prize money to it.
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