The Bundestag has rejected the complaint by the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) against the federal election results. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly against a recount of the votes. The party now plans to take the case to the Federal Constitutional Court.
After nearly ten months of hoping for a correction to the election results, the Bundestag has rejected the Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW)'s demand for a recount. Lawmakers followed a recommendation from the election review committee, which voted with support from the Union, SPD, Greens, and Left against the AfD. The committee found no mandate-relevant election errors.
CDU lawmaker Carsten Müller explained: “No single election error with mandate relevance has actually been proven.” He noted that zero votes in some districts were not anomalies but expressions of free elections. SPD member Johannes Fechner added: “One cannot conduct a recount into the blue.” The complaint had been carefully examined without party bias.
The BSW missed the five percent threshold by 9,529 votes and suspects systematic counting errors. However, the committee stated that isolated errors do not justify assuming general violations. BSW leader Fabio De Masi announced: “We want a submission that convinces in Karlsruhe.” The lawsuit is to be filed by mid-February, with a decision potentially taking six to twelve months.
De Masi rejected the isolated errors argument, citing statements from state election boards about atypical data suggesting miscounts against the BSW. A successful recount could shift the majority balance and weaken the black-red government.
