Sahra Wagenknecht and AfD for a recount of the federal election

In her fight for a recount of the federal election, BSW chairwoman Sahra Wagenknecht enlisted the help of the AfD – with success. “I also call on the AfD to support a recount,” she told the star. “It would be a revelation if the AfD acted in the backroom as support for the Merz government, because it would also lose some of its mandates if the BSW entered the Bundestag.”

It has been almost seven months since the election, in which the BSW narrowly missed out on entering the Bundestag according to the current results. Only around 9,500 votes were missing to get over the five percent hurdle. The party, as well as members and eligible voters, then filed lawsuits and urgent applications with the Federal Constitutional Court to have the election recounted.

But the court referred to the Bundestag. First, Parliament’s election verification committee must decide on the BSW’s objection. After that, the legal route to Karlsruhe is open.

However, the committee has not yet made a decision. According to information provided by the committee, the statements of the federal returning officer and the state returning officers as well as the response from the BSW are currently being evaluated. A time for a possible decision was not given.

The Basic Law does not provide for a deadline for this; the Federal Constitutional Court only speaks of a “speed requirement”. The committee says that the BSW’s complaint will be “treated as a priority”. In total, more than 1,000 objections were received.

The AfD now supports Wagenknecht’s concerns. “The other factions seem to be playing for time,” said deputy federal chairman Stephan Brandner star. “From our point of view, a decision needs to be made as quickly as possible.”

Brandner also serves as parliamentary managing director of the AfD parliamentary group and chairman of the election audit committee. “If there is any doubt that the Bundestag is not correctly composed, a new count must be carried out,” he said. The principle applies to the AfD: “In case of doubt, in favor of the recount.” The counting of votes is “not a political act, but simple mathematics.”

From Brandner’s point of view, it is acceptable that the AfD, like the other factions, would lose its own seats in the Bundestag if the BSW moved in. “If we then lost mandates and had to face additional competition, that wouldn’t be nice, of course,” he said. But: “Correct democracy beats self-interest.”

If the BSW were subsequently awarded the necessary votes to enter the Bundestag, this would have immense power-political consequences. The current coalition between the Union and the SPD no longer has a majority in the Bundestag. At the same time, the AfD and BSW had more than a quarter of the seats – and therefore enough votes to jointly decide on investigative committees.

Wagenknecht also referred to this. “We could then finally set up a Corona investigation committee or one on the Nord Stream explosion,” she said. The current opposition in the Bundestag is not yet ready for this. Wagenknecht already says: “Friedrich Merz is very likely the first Federal Chancellor who came into office without democratic legitimacy.”

Brandner now argues similarly for the AfD: “The question of whether the Federal Chancellor and therefore all ministers and parliamentary state secretaries are legitimately in office and whether the government majority even exists must be answered correctly and without political games.”

A parliament with the BSW could also prove to be “extremely interesting” strategically, he said. “Not only would the Merz government be at an end – all of its decisions, including parliamentary resolutions, would then be called into question.”

However, it is unlikely that the election verification committee, in which the coalition factions have the majority, will uphold the BSW’s objection. The Federal Returning Officer emphasizes, for example, that the BSW’s submissions were adequately taken into account before the official final result was determined.

In the event of a rejection, however, the BSW would still have the option of taking legal action before the Federal Constitutional Court. She can also count on scientific support. A nationwide recount “given the close outcome and many inconsistencies” not only makes sense, but is “urgently necessary,” explained political scientists Eckhard Jesse and Uwe Wagschal at the beginning of September.

By the way, the fact that election verification in parliament takes longer is not new. After the 2021 federal election, it took almost 14 months until the responsible committee – and then the entire parliament – declared the incorrect vote in 455 Berlin electoral districts invalid. Because the Union parliamentary group, among others, sued this decision in the Federal Constitutional Court, the repeat election did not take place until February 2024.