The top candidate for the European elections of the new party Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), Fabio De Masi, must be invited to the ARD program “Wahlarena 2024 Europa”. This was decided by the North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Administrative Court (OVG) in Münster on Wednesday in an expedited procedure and overturned a contrary decision by the Cologne Administrative Court.
The Westdeutsche Rundfunk (WDR), which is responsible for the broadcast, invited representatives from the SPD, CDU, CSU, Greens, FDP, AfD and Left Party to the broadcast on Thursday. The editor in charge argued that the broadcast should also look at the current electoral period, when BSW did not yet exist.
In addition, the number of guests had to be limited, so that the broadcaster concentrated on the representatives of the parties that were already represented in the current European Parliament and had relevant weight in Germany.
From the OVG’s point of view, the broadcast format does not justify not taking the BSW into account. WDR is free to dedicate an election broadcast exclusively or primarily to a review of the past election period. However, it is not apparent that this approach is actually the focus of the broadcast, the court explained.
It was also not clear why the total number of possible guests had to be limited to seven. The OVG also rejected the argument that only parties with relevant weight should be invited. Since February, the BSW has been moving in a “polling corridor” of four to seven percent and thus has better chances in some cases than the FDP and the Left.
The administrative court ruled a week ago that WDR had the right to “choose the participants at its own discretion.” Public broadcasters must also take parties into account in editorial broadcasts before elections, depending on their importance.
The WDR met the requirements by not inviting the BSW to the “election arena”, but by “giving it sufficient opportunity to reach voters in other election-related broadcasts”.