Germany’s top court on Monday dismissed a complaint filed by a minor populist party against its exclusion from a televized election campaign event, days before the country goes to the polls.
Public broadcaster ARD is due to host an election programme on Monday evening, featuring Chancellor Olaf Scholz, his conservative rival Friedrich Merz, Alice Weidel from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck from the Greens.
The newly formed Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), a self-styled “left conservative” party, subsequently filed a complaint over its exclusion from the programme.
The complaint was rejected by two lower courts in western Germany, with the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe on Monday issuing a final ruling that the broadcaster’s decision did not violate the party’s right to equality of opportunity under the Basic Law, Germany’s constitution.
In their rulings, the lower courts said that the public broadcaster must in principle give each party the same opportunities in the election campaign, rejecting the arbitrary exclusion of certain groups.
However, they backed the programme’s move to invite candidates whose parties are above 10% in the polls and are therefore likely to have an important influence on political developments in the coming years.
The BSW is currently hovering around the 5% threshold usually needed to enter the German parliament, leading the courts to rule that the party’s namesake and founder Sahra Wagenknecht did not have a constitutional right to appear on Monday’s programme.
