Originally published 2021-07-15.
In July 2021, Germany's Federal Electoral Committee refused to recognise a number of small political groups as parties entitled to run in that September's Bundestag election. The most prominent was the German Communist Party (DKP). The decision was not a ban on communist or anarchist ideas: the committee said the DKP had lost its legal status as a party because of repeated problems with its financial reports. The DKP appealed, and on 27 July 2021 the Federal Constitutional Court ruled in its favour, so the party did appear on the ballot.
Here is how party recognition works in Germany, why the DKP was first turned away, why the court overturned that decision, and what happened to the other groups.
How a small party gets onto a German ballot
Parties already represented in the Bundestag, or in a state parliament with at least five members, are automatically entitled to run. Everyone else has to apply to the Federal Electoral Committee (Bundeswahlausschuss) months before polling day and show that they are a genuine party under German law.
The committee is chaired by the Federal Returning Officer and includes eight members drawn from the political parties and two judges from the Federal Administrative Court. It checks whether each applicant has filed the required paperwork on time and whether it has the organisation, membership and public presence that the Political Parties Act expects of a real party.
Recognition is only the first step. Groups that pass must still collect supporting signatures from eligible voters in the areas where they want to field candidates before their names are printed on the ballot paper.
What the committee decided in July 2021
The committee met on 8 and 9 July 2021 and considered applications from 87 associations. It admitted 53. The rest were turned down for a range of reasons, from missing documents to doubts about whether they were parties at all.
The DKP's case drew the most attention. Founded in 1968 as a successor to the Communist Party of Germany, which had been banned in West Germany in 1956, the DKP had run in every federal election since its creation. The committee concluded that over six years the party had repeatedly failed to submit its annual statements of accounts on time and in the form the law requires. Under the Political Parties Act, a party that fails to file these reports for six years loses its party status, and the committee applied that rule.
The DKP and other excluded left-wing groups argued that they were being targeted for their politics rather than for bookkeeping. Party chairman Patrik Köbele told reporters, "We are convinced that this attempt to ban us [from the election] will fail."
Another group in the headlines was the Anarchist Pogo Party of Germany (APPD), a long-running satirical party famous for joke slogans mocking the idea of work. Reports at the time said its application had been rejected partly because it was submitted only electronically; that detail could not be confirmed from official records.
Why the Constitutional Court reversed the DKP decision
Twenty of the rejected associations complained to the Federal Constitutional Court. Its Second Senate decided the cases on 22 July and published the results on 27 July 2021.
Only the DKP won. The court held that handing in a financial report late is not the same as never handing it in. The DKP had filed several reports within the six-year period that met the legal content requirements, only after the deadline, and late filing alone does not strip a group of its party status. The judges also looked at the party's real circumstances, including its organisation, membership and visibility, and concluded that it could still take a serious part in political life.
With the DKP added, 54 parties were entitled to stand. The other 19 complaints failed: 15 were rejected as inadmissible, including the APPD's, and four were found to be unfounded.
Why the rules exist
Germany's careful screening of parties has historical roots. The Basic Law, adopted in 1949 after the Nazi era, gives parties a special constitutional role and expects them to be transparent about their finances. Annual accounts let the public see who funds a party and how it spends its money.
At the same time, the constitution protects the freedom to found parties. Only the Federal Constitutional Court can actually ban a party, and only if it actively seeks to undermine the democratic order. The Electoral Committee has no power to ban anyone for its views; it can only decide whether a group meets the formal and practical tests for taking part in a particular election.
That is why describing the July 2021 decisions as a ban on communists and anarchists was misleading. The exclusions were administrative, they could be appealed, and in the DKP's case the appeal succeeded within three weeks.
The 2021 election and where the left stood
On polling day, 26 September 2021, 47 parties and lists actually appeared on ballots, fewer than the 54 recognised, because some small groups did not complete the remaining steps such as gathering signatures. The DKP received 15,158 votes nationwide, a tiny fraction of the total.
Most left-wing voters in Germany back Die Linke (The Left). Before 2021 it usually won between about 8 and 12 percent of the national vote, but in that election it fell to 4.9 percent, just under the 5 percent threshold. It kept its place in the Bundestag with 39 seats only because it won three constituency seats directly, which exempts a party from the threshold under the rules then in force.
The election was also the end of an era. Angela Merkel, chancellor since 2005, chose not to run again, the first time a sitting German chancellor had not sought re-election. The Social Democrats came first with 25.7 percent, and Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor on 8 December 2021 at the head of a coalition with the Greens and the Free Democrats.
What the episode shows
The DKP case is a small story with a clear lesson about German democracy. Administrative rules on party finances are enforced strictly, but they are also subject to independent judicial review, and courts weigh them against the constitutional right of citizens to organise politically. A first decision by an electoral body is not always the final word, and reports written in the days after it can quickly be overtaken.
Sources: Federal Returning Officer, press release 17/21; Deutscher Bundestag: Constitutional Court decisions on party recognition; beck-aktuell: DKP wins recognition at the Constitutional Court; Wikipedia: German Communist Party; Wikipedia: 2021 German federal election. Original 2021 reporting by Deutsche Welle.
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