With her statements on the Prime Minister election in Thuringia in 2020, then Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) violated the rights of the AfD. This was determined by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe in a judgment announced on Wednesday.
As Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel violated the rights of the AfD with her statements on the election of the prime minister in Thuringia at the beginning of 2020. This was determined by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. The judges ruled in a judgment announced on Wednesday that Merkel violated the principle of equal opportunities for the parties. (Az. 2 BvE 4/20 and others)
On February 5, 2020, the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich was surprisingly elected head of government in the Erfurt state parliament with the help of the CDU and AfD. It was the first time that a Prime Minister was helped into office by the AfD.
Chancellor Merkel (CDU), who was traveling at the time, spoke up the day after the election and prefaced her press conference with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a “preliminary remark” “for domestic political reasons”. The result must be “undone,” she said, at least the CDU should not participate in this government. And: “It was a bad day for democracy.” A transcript of the press conference was meanwhile available on bundeskanzlerin.de and bundesregierung.de.
Kemmerich resigned after three days, and he had been in office without a government until March. Bodo Ramelow (left), who did not get enough votes in the first two ballots, became prime minister again.
In the Karlsruhe hearing in July 2021, Merkel’s Chancellor Helge Braun (CDU) defended the statements by saying that the journalists traveling with him and, above all, the coalition partner wanted a position. It was also about the international reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The AfD had already sued the then Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) before the Federal Constitutional Court because an interview with passages critical of the AfD was on his ministry website. And Johanna Wanka (CDU) was reprimanded during her time as Minister of Education for having called for the “red card” for the AfD in a ministry statement. According to these verdicts, politicians may publicly criticize the AfD. However, they must uphold the principle of state neutrality when expressing themselves in their role as members of the government.
