Fight for every vote

Wagenknecht now demands a recount of the election

(Bild: EPA/CHRISTOPHER NEUNDORF)

The Sahra Wagenknecht alliance narrowly missed out on entering the German Bundestag. However, the new party's hopes have not yet completely faded - on Tuesday it was announced that Wagenknecht is taking the matter to the Federal Constitutional Court in order to obtain a recount of the votes.

A BSW spokeswoman confirmed a corresponding report in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" to the German Press Agency. The application was filed in Karlsruhe on Tuesday, she said. Further complaints are to follow in the course of the week.

Only a few thousand votes were missing
According to the provisional final results of the Bundestag elections on February 23, the BSW received around 4.97 percent of the vote nationwide, narrowly missing the five percent threshold to enter parliament. Since then, individual recounts in several places have revealed that some votes were apparently incorrectly allocated. However, there have been no major shifts in the voting ratios.

In the FAZ newspaper, party founder Sahra Wagenknecht spoke of "several thousand BSW votes" that had apparently been incorrectly allocated to other parties or deemed invalid.

"Respect for the voters demands it"
"Respect for the voters demands that possible errors are carefully checked and corrected," said the BSW leader. This would only work "if a nationwide recount is carried out before the official final result is determined".

The official final result is to be announced by the Federal Election Committee as early as next Friday. An objection could then be raised against it and, if necessary, a lawsuit filed.