2024-03-26 19:09:46
In the past, positions in the Bundestag were usually distributed after an election without much fanfare. Things have changed since the AfD sat in the plenary session. Now the highest German court is negotiating this.
The Federal Constitutional Court is examining whether the AfD parliamentary group has the right to chair Bundestag committees and whether its representatives can be voted out of such an office.
For the first time, the highest German court dealt with questions of the election and removal of committee chairmen, according to Vice President Doris König. The background is two lawsuits from the AfD faction. The negotiation in Karlsruhe was a lot about fairness, trust and the question of which hat a politician wears when – and whether that is visible to everyone.
Members of the parties represented in the Bundestag sit on the committees. They discuss specialist topics and prepare resolutions in the plenary session. The committees are named and appointed anew in each electoral term. Which faction chairs which committee is actually negotiated in the Council of Elders.
AfD candidates failed
If there is no agreement – as was the case after the federal election in September 2021 – an access order is calculated based on the strength of the factions. According to this, the parliamentary groups can alternately choose committees. The Interior and Health Committees as well as the Development Cooperation Committee fell to the AfD.
The parliamentary groups then usually appoint the chair – an election is only held in the event of an objection. Accordingly, there were two secret elections in the three committees – and both times all three AfD candidates fell well short of the required majority.
The AfD parliamentary group therefore complains about the “breaking of decades-long parliamentary practice,” said König. She is concerned with the fair and loyal application of the Bundestag’s rules of procedure. It stipulates that committees “appoint” their chairmen. (Ref. 2 BvE 10/21)
According to König, the respondents – the Bundestag, its President and the committees concerned – are of the opinion that the AfD parliamentary group has no right to immediately send a committee chairman. The possibility of voting out a chairman is also directly provided by the principle of democracy.
Unprecedented deselection of AfD politicians
The deselection concerns the AfD’s second lawsuit regarding the deselection of Stephan Brandner as chairman of the Legal Committee in November 2019, which is also being negotiated (ref. 2 BvE 1/20). The AfD politician was dismissed after several self-triggered scandals – a unique event in the history of the Bundestag.
For example, Brandner commented on the awarding of the Federal Cross of Merit to the AfD-critical rock singer Udo Lindenberg on the short message service Twitter (today: X) with the remark “Judaslohn”. He also sparked outrage with his reactions to the anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Halle, which left two people dead and injured.
The Constitutional Court rejected urgent applications in both cases, but emphasized that the group’s rights could be violated. Therefore, both lawsuits were now heard together. A verdict from the Second Senate is not expected for a few months.
A question of sensitivity and caution
“The committee chairmen enjoy particular trust from the parliamentary groups,” said SPD MP Johannes Fechner during the hearing. They should mediate in conflicts, but not engage in partisan politics. It is therefore important that they are qualified people. FDP politician Stephan Thomae said the office was typical for MPs with a lot of experience in the Bundestag, but not typically an opposition tool.
Irene Mihalic from the Greens emphasized that the chairmen represented the committee as a whole and not the politics of a specific faction. Anyone who is invited by associations in this role should not wear a different hat. Thomae said that it takes a lot of sensitivity to separate the roles of party politician and committee chairman. You don’t become a “political neutral”, but you shouldn’t polarize too much. According to the statements, Brandner had not succeeded.
However, politicians as well as the Senate expressed doubts as to whether the separation of roles was always understandable in public – since television stations, for example, tend to only show party affiliation in discussion groups. In this context, the AfD’s representative, Prof. Michael Elicker, referred to the chairwoman of the Defense Committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP). Their prominence can hardly be surpassed, said Elicker. And in his opinion she only has this thanks to her position on the committee.
Strack-Zimmermann’s “Fecal Language” and Kubicki’s “Sewer Rat”
Brandner also referred to Strack-Zimmermann. She uses “fecal language” and makes a racket. Bundestag Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki even insulted a foreign politician as a rat without there being any consequences. What is meant is that the FDP politician called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “sewer rat”. The subject of the personal qualifications of the committee chairs was never an issue except for the AfD candidates, said Brandner.