More than nine months after the federal election, the Bundestag’s election review committee has recommended that the parliament reject the BSW’s appeal. According to the draft resolution, the votes cast on February 23 and those submitted by postal ballot should not be recounted. The BSW narrowly failed to enter the Bundestag, winning 4.981% of the vote.
The party had alleged numerous counting errors, including a mix-up with the similarly named conservative Bündnis Deutschland (BD), which appeared directly above Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) on the ballot papers. The key issue is that if the BSW were to enter the Bundestag after a recount, the CDU/CSU–SPD coalition government would lose its majority. That majority was only achieved because both the left-wing nationalist BSW and the liberal FDP failed to cross the 5% threshold. As a result, the CDU/CSU and SPD together received 44.9% of the votes–enough for an absolute majority of seats.
The BSW will now file a lawsuit with the Federal Constitutional Court, demanding a recount of the ballots. The majority of judges on Germany’s highest court were appointed by the CDU/CSU and SPD.
