For many fans, the soap opera Dallas was ruined forever when Bobby Ewing, killed off at the end of one season, reappeared in the shower at the end of the next.
Similar confusion and anger – but with real-world consequences – is building in Berlin after the city-state’s September 2021 election was declared invalid.
In a withering ruling last Wednesday, Berlin’s constitutional court found that poor planning and execution of the election – too few or incorrect ballot papers; too few voting cabins; large queues; extended voting past the 6pm deadline – caused too many unacceptable, potentially mandate-altering errors. According to one analysis, every sixth vote cast in Berlin was invalid.
At first glance the ruling appeared a mere nuisance: rerun the election within 90 days, this time after a chilly winter campaign.
As the dust settles, however, legal minds are considering a parallel to the Bobby Ewing precedent. To bring back the beloved Ewing son, series producers made the entire ninth season of Dallas a confused dream of his wife, meaning anything that happened in those episodes – births, deaths, marriages – was rendered null and void.
Using that logic, then, who is current governing mayor of Berlin? Is it Franziska Giffey, the soft-voiced 44-year-old elected for the first time last September for the Social Democratic Party (SPD)? Some, including Giffey herself, assumed she will stay on in a caretaker capacity until next February’s poll.
But if she was never legally elected as head of Berlin’s city-state government, in what capacity can she stay on?
Perhaps the governing mayor is actually still Michael Müller, her luckless predecessor who successfully swapped Berlin town hall for a Bundestag seat last September. Or did he?
Now a former Berlin politician has filed a constitutional complaint, seeking clarification from the same court which, last week, threw out the 2021 election. Marcel Luthe’s complaint is that non-elected and thus non-legitimised politicians are “playing at parliament”.
“If we allow people to govern this country, unopposed, who are not elected, something which has been clear since Wednesday, we will bury the principle of democracy and the free democratic order,” argued Mr Luthe, who lost his seat for the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) last September.
In its ruling, Berlin’s constitutional court said the new state parliament should remain in office “to ensure continuity” but “maintain a degree of restraint in its duties”. But on what legal basis does this new parliament even exist?
“I consider it indefensible,” he said, “for a state court to come along and say – instead of the sovereign, the voters – who is allowed govern us and who, in future, is allowed name constitutional judges.”
Mr Luthe argues the previous parliament, of which he was a member and which sat from 2016-2021, is the last legally elected representation of the people. It should be reinstated – and him along with it – until the election is re-run.
Mr Luthe has applied to the Berlin court for clarification and has not ruled out taking a legal case to the federal constitutional court in Karlsruhe, throwing next February’s planned election rerun into doubt.
Confusion is building, too, over what the ruling’s phrase “a degree of restraint” means for lawmakers. Does it mean no new laws can be passed until the election re-run or is it applicable retrospectively to legislation passed since the SPD took office last December with its Green and hard-left Linke partners?
One of the coalition’s most popular decisions was to create a new €29 monthly transport ticket until a new nationwide pass comes into effect. But is the €29 ticket legitimate given the MPs who voted for it are not?
Another point of confusion: are Berlin’s political parties required to re-run the election with the same candidate lists, as some lawyers suggest? Parties hope not given some candidates are back in their day jobs – or have jumped ship to other parties.
In addition, is still unclear whether the Bundestag will order a full or partial re-run of elections for the capital’s 29 Bundestag mandate, chosen in a parallel poll on last September’s chaotic election day.
With more drama than even the Dallas “dream season”, Berlin’s election nightmare prompted the left-wing Taz daily newspaper to dub the German capital a “failed city-state”.
“What’s pathetic, though, is that Berliners are not really surprised,” it added. “It’s become completely normal in the capital that things don’t work as they should.”
