The party emerged from the association "Wahlalternative Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit e. V." which had been founded on 3 July 2004. The association itself had started as the merger of the groups Initiative Arbeit und soziale Gerechtigkeit (mainly by Bavarian union representatives) and the Wahlalternative ("Electoral Alternative", founded by people in Northern and Western Germany). Both groups had been founded in reaction to the government politics as laid down in the Agenda 2010 programme of the governing "Red-Green" coalition, which they consider as too neoliberal. The first meeting of the Wahlalternative took place on 5 March 2004 in the Berlin headquarters of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB).