The failure of the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) before the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) and the expected rejection of their objection by the Bundestag’s Electoral Review Committee (Wahlprüfungsausschuss) – to force a recount of the second votes for the 2025 Bundestag election – casts a dark light on the flaws of the German electoral review system. While the BSW narrowly missed entering the Bundestag (missing only about 9,500 votes with 4.972% and 4.981%, respectively), the call for transparency and mathematical accuracy is being dismissed by established institutions.
This decision is not only a severe setback for the young party but also a serious danger to the trust in democracy.
The Veto of the Institutions: Narrowness Alone is Not Enough
Both the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) in its urgent procedure and the Bundestag’s Electoral Review Committee argued against a nationwide recount:
- Lack of Concrete Errors: A close election result alone does not justify a recount. It would require concrete, substantial evidence of mandate-relevant electoral errors. According to the institutions, the BSW did not provide this sufficiently.
- Subordinate Judicial Review: The BVerfG referred the party to the regular Electoral Review Procedure under Art. 41 of the Basic Law (GG). The urgent motions for an immediate recount before the official final result was determined were rejected.
The Criticism: System Flaws and Delays
The criticism from the BSW and supporting constitutional lawyers regarding this stance is massive and highlights the structural problems of the system:
- Mathematics Over Ideology: Sahra Wagenknecht herself called the recount a “demand of fairness,” emphasizing that counting is “not an ideological question, but a mathematical one.” If errors exist, they must be corrected to reflect the real election result.
- Proven Errors: Counting errors, allocation errors, and transmission errors were found in the sample recounts and checks already carried out. In particular, the confusion with the less significant minor party Bündnis Deutschland – which was positioned directly above the BSW on the ballot and has a similar-sounding name – led to the incorrect allocation of thousands of votes. The BSW significantly improved its result based on the corrected errors alone (4,277 additional votes). The BSW argues that these localized corrections must raise alarm and justify a nationwide count.
- System of Delays: Constitutional lawyer Christoph Degenhart criticizes the system of subsequent judicial review as “problematic and dysfunctional.” The BSW complains that the Electoral Review Committee “very, very rarely convenes,” delaying the decision. The Bundestag might thus operate in a constitutionally invalid composition for possibly a quarter of the legislative period if the BSW is subsequently awarded mandates.
The Damage to Democracy
The refusal to order a complete recount despite such a close result and proven errors sends a devastating signal to the electorate and political competition:
- Loss of Trust: The voters’ will, according to the implicit message, is less important than the stability of the official result. This severely damages confidence in the correctness of the democratic process.
- Favoring the Established: The system of subsequent judicial review favors established parties, whose governing majorities should not be jeopardized by a correction. The hurdles for minor and new parties to assert their rights are extremely high in Germany.
- Refusal of Transparency: Where so many inconsistencies exist and so few votes are missing, a complete, nationwide recount is not just a right of the party, but a duty of the state to safeguard transparency and the mathematical accuracy of the election.
For politischeverfolgung.de, it is clear: The refusal of the recount is evidence of a worrying tendency to prioritize political stability over mathematical correctness and the rights of political challengers. A functioning rule of law must be capable of guaranteeing the most fundamental of all tasks – the correct counting of votes.
