He forced Berlin to its knees: Marcel Luthe will contest the federal election
The BSW is not the only one to doubt the legitimacy of the election. Former Berlin MP Luthe is calling for people to report any problems with the postal vote – but it should not stop there.
Not everyone who wanted to take part in the federal election was able to cast their vote. There were reports beforehand of German citizens living abroad who had not received any postal voting documents. For others, the mail did not arrive at all. It is unclear how many people are affected; the number is not being recorded, says the Federal Returning Officer. A total of 213,000 eligible voters living abroad have registered on the electoral register.
Because the extent of the problem is questionable, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) has announced a legal review of the election process . After all, the party was only around 13,400 votes short of entering parliament, so in theory electoral errors could have decided the distribution of seats.
Marcel Luthe from the Good Governance Union also has doubts about the legality of this federal election. After the 2021 Berlin parliamentary election, Luthe went to court and lodged an objection, glitches became known, and the election had to be repeated. The Berliner Zeitung spoke to the former FDP politician.
Mr. Luthe, you have called for irregularities in the federal election to be reported to the Good Governance Union. How many letters have been received so far?
We should differentiate between the reports from our members in ministries and administration and those from voters who are directly affected. The former are sometimes very extensive and report - for example from the Federal Statistical Office - on a wide range of previously known, avoidable election errors that must finally have consequences for those responsible. There have been around 30 so far. And then there are the individual observations of "normal" citizens, many Germans living abroad. There are now more than 1,000 reports.
What are people saying?
The main focus is on the amateurish planning and implementation of postal voting, both in Germany and for Germans living abroad. Not only were many applications not processed or not processed in time, but applications to be included in the voter register were also delayed or processed incorrectly. What is remarkable here is the nonchalance with which some officials admitted that it was their mistake - but now people just can't vote and should keep quiet. After all, that is exactly why the American Revolution broke out almost 250 years ago.
There are irregularities in every election. Isn't that normal?
A clear distinction must be made between coincidences that occur in exceptional cases despite all due care and a planned, systematic organizational failure that is based solely on the fact that people like to live off the citizens' money but do not take their rights so seriously. The latter was the case in Berlin in 2021 and rightly led to the annulment of the election. Because if we think this through to the end, one could just "forget" to let the citizens vote. Then you have serfs without rights - and historically we are back in 1776, in pre-democratic times.
We now have over a thousand reports of #election errors , with the majority affecting the more opposition-friendly group of Germans living abroad. Contrary to some claims, however, not primarily from overseas, but from the EU.
One request: send us to… pic.twitter.com/o4SVe1yGVG
— Marcel Luthe - Good Governance (@GGLuthe) February 25, 2025
The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance wants to have the election examined legally. Do you think this has any prospects?
The procedure in Germany - in contrast to vibrant democracies such as the USA , Switzerland or Hungary and contrary to the legal recourse guarantee of the Basic Law - does not provide for effective judicial protection for elections. This is because the - dubiously legitimate - presumptive new Bundestag is to convene first and thus irreversibly dissolve the current one. And this despite the fact that it is doubtful whether all of these people were even democratically elected! And they then theoretically have unlimited time to check for themselves whether the election was conducted correctly. So they decide as judges in their own case and can drag it out for years. And only then does Karlsruhe even have jurisdiction. Effective control will only be possible through constant public pressure. That is my lesson from 2021.
Do you want to challenge the election yourself?
We will definitely contest the result and invite every citizen to join in. Because it is not about specific party interests, but about defending democracy as such - a historic task for the unions. This will only be possible once the official final result has been announced, but my team is already preparing.
Do you believe that the election would have to be repeated in whole or in part if the challenge is successful?
"Belief" is not the category. If the home-made election errors are confirmed, as they currently seem to be, they must be repeated if Germany is to be democratic. Consider the disastrous picture that emerges when hundreds of thousands of Germans living abroad - who often tend to vote for opposition parties - are excluded from the right to vote because of mistakes made by the government that are favorable to the government. How does Mr Merz intend to approach the USA if we suddenly act on the same level as Moscow , Beijing , Kiev or Pyongyang?
Now you're exaggerating.
Whether elections are democratic or not is a binary question. Either they are - in which case they can be reasonably challenged - or they are not, in which case they can and must be annulled. Anyone who shies away from comparisons with undemocratic regimes should perhaps just make a little effort when it comes to this high point of democracy.
Berliner-zeitung
