2024-09-18 21:35:28
Federal Constitutional Court
A right to chair a committee? AfD fails in Karlsruhe
Updated on 18.09.2024 – 14:11Reading time: 4 min.
The chairmen of committees in the Bundestag play an important role. The AfD does not currently hold such an office. And that’s OK, says Germany’s highest court.
Important decisions in the Bundestag are often prepared in committees in which members of different factions work together. The committee chairmen play a central role. The AfD is currently excluded from these top positions – and therefore appealed to the Federal Constitutional Court. But the judges in Karlsruhe rejected the party on Wednesday. Two organ complaints by the AfD faction were unsuccessful. The most important questions and answers about the verdict:
Bundestag committees are reappointed and filled in each legislative period. As a rule, each federal ministry has a standing committee, but additional committees can also be added for individual policy areas. Each committee consists of a chair, a deputy and a certain number of members. “The committee chairs hold an important position,” the Bundestag website states. “They prepare the meetings, convene them and chair them.”
According to the Bundestag’s rules of procedure, committees choose their chairmen and their deputies “according to the agreements in the Council of Elders”. In fact, there is a procedure agreed upon by the parliamentary groups, which is based on the strength of the individual parliamentary groups. This sets out the order in which the parliamentary groups have access to committee chairs. The parliamentary groups can decide for themselves which of the vacant committees they want to appoint the chairperson to. The AfD thus won the Committee on Internal Affairs, the Committee on Health and the Committee on Development Cooperation.
It is unusual for the committee to elect the chairperson. Normally, the personnel decision is accepted by the other factions. However, this was different at the beginning of the current legislative period in the committees where the AfD was to have the chair. Here, the other committee members demanded an election, in which they then failed the AfD candidate. The deputy chairpersons currently lead the committees in question.
The AfD parliamentary group had brought two organ dispute proceedings before the Constitutional Court because it felt that its rights to equal treatment as a parliamentary group, to effective opposition and to fair and loyal application of the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag had been violated. On the one hand, it objected to the non-election of its candidates to the chair of the three relevant Bundestag committees (case no. 2BvE 10/21).
On the other hand, it took action against the dismissal of the then Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, Stephan Brandner, in November 2019 (ref. 2 BvE 1/20). After several scandals, all committee members with the exception of the AfD MPs voted for his dismissal in the last legislative period – a unique event in the history of the Bundestag.
On Wednesday, the Second Senate rejected both of the AfD parliamentary group’s organ complaints. Both the elections to determine the committee chairs and the removal from the chair of the Legal Affairs Committee were within the scope of the Bundestag’s autonomy in terms of rules of procedure, explained the presiding judge, Doris König.
König stressed that the parliamentary groups should be treated equally and in accordance with their strength. For example, every committee should be a smaller version of the plenary. However, this principle of mirroring does not apply to committees and functions of a purely organizational nature. One such function is the chair of the committee.
After the verdict, AfD MP and former chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee Brandner spoke of a “black day for parliamentarism”. The rights of the opposition would be massively weakened as a result. The only aim was to prevent the AfD. But for the current majority parties it was a “Pyrrhic victory”, stressed Brandner, adding: “Majorities can change.”
And what do the other groups say?
The current chairwoman of the Legal Affairs Committee in the Bundestag, Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker (CDU), particularly welcomes the court’s clarification that the role of committee chairwoman obliges her to exercise her office with moderation. The parliamentary manager of the Union, Thorsten Frei (CDU), told the Rheinische Post: “The AfD should finally abandon its self-chosen victim role. Karlsruhe has clearly established that its rights to fair trials have been upheld.”