The Left party, led by Sahra Wagenknecht, missed the 5% threshold by a narrow margin, garnering 4.972% of the votes. The party has now filed a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court, with further complaints expected to follow, according to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The party is focusing on the alleged irregularities in the vote count, particularly in Berlin, where the Landeswahlausschuss recently increased the party’s vote count by 150. Wagenknecht stated that “a few thousand BSW votes were apparently misattributed to other parties or deemed invalid” and that it is necessary to “thoroughly examine and correct any possible errors” out of respect for the voters.
The party is calling for a nationwide re-count of all votes, citing the numerous errors already discovered and corrected. The procedure for electoral disputes, as outlined in the German constitution, requires the party to first consult with the Bundestag’s electoral committee, which can then be appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court.
The party’s lawyers, Uwe Lipinski and Christoph Degenhart, argue that the court’s decision in a similar case in 1990 and the Saxon State Constitutional Court’s decision in 2019 support their claim for an urgent review of the election results before the official results are announced.
Meanwhile, the Berliner Zeitung reported that the BSW’s vote count in Brandenburg has been revised, with the party now in second place behind the Left party, due to a correction of 218 votes. The BSW’s Brandenburg state chairman, Stefan Roth, stated that a complete re-count of all votes, including in Brandenburg, is necessary to show that the party indeed fell short of the 5% threshold.
The party’s finance expert, Fabio De Masi, has written an opinion piece criticizing the usual electoral review procedures, which he believes are flawed and even illegal. He also criticized the publication of election polls close to the election date, which he believes can influence the outcome of the election.
In Thuringia, the party is facing internal conflicts, with some members calling for the removal of the state leadership, Wolf and Schütz, who had advocated for the party’s participation in the state government. The party’s Thuringian state chairman, Frank Augsten, stated that the party’s performance in the state election in September and the Bundestag election in February is difficult to assess, but that the party’s membership growth and internal conflicts are major challenges.