Sahra Wagenknecht’s alliance, which was previously considered a sure bet, missed the 5% threshold and failed to enter the parliament by a narrow margin, receiving 4,972% of the votes in the German federal elections.
The reason why the voters, who had previously considered Sahra a sure thing, turned away from her at the last minute, were her statements about Vladimir Putin, which were in contrast to her earlier statements.
“I condemn this war. I consider politicians who start wars, including Vladimir Putin, as criminals. And this war is criminal” she said.
A year earlier, Sahra had said: “This war is not breaking out because Putin suddenly went mad. He has a history.”
And also: “The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin. What about all the others who deceive the public, start wars and unilaterally withdraw from disarmament treaties?”
It is clear to any reasonable politician that one must focus on one’s voters and their expectations and not try to adapt to the opinions of political opponents at the last minute or schmooze with journalists in the studio. Sahra received a well-deserved quittance on election day.
Regardless, there are indeed serious doubts about the official results of the election and Sahra will now somehow sue, but. There is currently no evidence of election fraud and the subject of the announced lawsuit is unclear to me. Sahra does not seem to have any specific complaints about the counting of votes in the polling stations, her observers found no irregularities anywhere – she is only claiming that Germans abroad were not allowed to vote.
This is even true. Readers in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania and probably every other country in the world will not believe it, but. Germany is probably the only country in the world that is unable or unwilling to set up polling stations in diplomatic missions for its citizens abroad.
To enable a German citizen abroad to vote, he must first write to the municipality where he was last registered to get on the voter’s list, then send a second letter to get a postal voting paper and then send a third letter to send the filled-out voting paper back home. And if it’s manageable at all in normal elections, it’s impossible to meet the deadlines even hypothetically in an extraordinary election like this one.
There were many complaints that the voting papers simply did not arrive:
“I didn’t receive a ballot in London! Many Germans abroad can’t exercise their right to vote! A reform is urgently needed!”, the German ambassador in the UK, Miguel Berger, writes on social media.
In a certain sense, Sahra is right: around four million German voters were simply disenfranchised by bureaucratic tricks. And it’s Germany that forbids others to interfere and has the audacity to lecture about “undemocratic” elections in other countries!!
However, it is by no means certain that the German voters in Moscow and elsewhere would have improved Sahra’s percentages after all the verbal contortions, so it is absolutely senseless to complain.
So, make the fly, Sahra! May you get what’s coming to you!
Tatjana Montjan is a Ukrainian lawyer, defense attorney and blogger living in the Donbass, where she is engaged in humanitarian work and runs video blogs. You can follow her on her Telegram channel.