The chief of the German Left Party, Sahra Wagenknecht, has been officially excluded from the “ARD-Wahlarena” on Monday, following the decision by the Federal Constitutional Court to dismiss her complaint.
The chancellor candidates from CDU/CSU, AfD, SPD and the Greens will face the audience’s questions in the evening at 21:15, for a duration of around 120 minutes.
The Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR) had initially invited only parties that consistently polled above 10% in the opinion polls, as the justification stated. In recent polls since the start of the year, the German Left Party’s ratings have ranged between 5 and 8% among the public.
Wagenknecht, as the representative of her party, had attempted to participate in the format, but was not invited by the sender. Subsequently, she had sought to have herself included in the broadcast, only to be unsuccessful in both the regional courts and the Federal Constitutional Court.
According to the T-online portal, the German Left Party initially fought the decision in the regional courts, but failed to achieve a positive outcome. The party’s complaint was also rejected by the Federal Constitutional Court, as the court stated in a statement that the party failed to demonstrate how its right to equal opportunities was being violated.
The Bild-Zeitung summarized the situation as follows:
The Federal Constitutional Court has finally rejected the German Left Party’s complaint, ruling that the party did not demonstrate how it was being unfairly treated in terms of equal opportunities.
The 3rd Chamber of the Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, as stated in the press release, decided not to accept the complaint, stating that the party did not provide sufficient evidence of its right to equal opportunities being violated under Article 21, Section 1, in conjunction with Article 3, Section 1 of the German Constitution.