Germany taz
BSW objection to federal election: Wagenknecht hopes for her Christmas miracle
The Federal Constitutional Court will decide by the end of the year on the BSW's objection to the results of the federal election. But it's about time, complains Wagenknecht. more...
Deutsch (original) ·Auto-translated to English
It is the straw that the BSW has been clinging to since the botched federal election in 2025: If the votes were recounted across the board, the Wagenknecht party, which had narrowly failed to meet the 5 percent threshold, could subsequently enter the Bundestag - and finally play with the big players again.
After the Bundestag rejected a recount requested by the BSW a good year ago, the party went to the Federal Constitutional Court in February with an almost 180-page election audit complaint. Nothing has happened since then, at least the party claims. At least there is now light at the end of the tunnel: “A decision should be published this year,” says a court spokesman to the taz. Stern first reported.
According to the official final result for 2025, the party was only 9,500 votes short of re-entering the Bundestag. To this day, it is clear to the leaders of the BSW: things could not have happened correctly when the votes were counted in February last year. It is said again and again that the BSW had “demonstrated errors in the most well-founded manner” immediately after the election. So there must be more to be had.
“If the federal election had been counted correctly, we would most likely have entered the Bundestag and would have been able to further establish ourselves in the states,” complains the BSW board again in the lead motion for the upcoming federal party conference at the end of November.
There are five state elections coming up in 2027, all in the west, and in all five the party is in danger of sinking - as it did this year in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. In order to get a foot on the ground in federal politics, we would need a big stage again, at least a bigger one than the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt, the Bundestag.
Wagenknecht and her followers repeatedly emphasize another aspect. According to the embassy, a recount would inevitably result in the downfall of Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). “If we enter the Bundestag through a recount, this government will lose its majority,” states the party founder. At least she would be right about this.
Legal experts are now assuming that there will be no oral hearing on the election audit complaint before the decision in Karlsruhe in the coming weeks. When asked by taz, the Federal Constitutional Court neither wants to confirm nor deny this. As a general rule, one does not comment on speculations about consultation details.
BSW federal boss Fabio De Masi is already sensing the next scandal in view of the likely failure of the case to be heard. He writes on
In fact, the chances of a BSW complaint being successful are generally considered to be low. The only option left for the Wagenknecht party would then be to go to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. However, this has not yet been decided, a spokesman for the party executive told the taz.