Federal Constitutional Court: No conversations to be said: Union gives the left a basket

The Union continues to reject discussions with the left about the judge’s election for the Federal Constitutional Court for three days from the decisive votes in the Bundestag. “We do not intend to go to the left or to enter into any conversations with the left,” said Parliamentary Managing Director Steffen Bilger in Berlin.

Left demands conversations

The left-wing chairman Jan van Aken had previously excluded approval to the candidate Günter Spinner supported by the Union without prior talks with the Union. “No choice without a conversation, that’s very easy,” he said on Monday.

The Bundestag voted on Friday about the occupation of 3 of the 16 judge positions at the Federal Constitutional Court. The election committee nominated the labor judge Günter Spinner supported by the Union and the legal professor Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf and Ann-Katrin Kaufhold proposed by the SPD.

What role does the AfD play?

A two -thirds majority of the MPs present is necessary for the election. If all parliamentarians pass their vote, then the Union, SPD and Greens would lack seven votes for this majority. In addition, at least a majority of all 630 members of the Bundestag must be achieved, i.e. at least 316 votes.

However, since such votes are almost always missing, the Union hopes that it is still a two -thirds majority with the help of the Greens. “We value that we have very good presence on Friday, so we are also confident that we can get the majority,” said Bilger.

But it could also be that it is not enough and that AfD votes contribute to Spinner. The AfD faction management has already recommended its MPs to vote for the candidate supported by the Union. In the end, however, it will not be possible to determine exactly how the majority came about because the choice is secret.

CSU state group leader warns of failure

One of the two candidates of the SPD is still controversial: the lawyer Brosius-Gersdorf is considered to be to the left for many in the Union. In your choice, the question is how many deviators there will be in the CDU and CSU. If the election fails in the Bundestag, the Federal Council would be entrusted with the occupation of the judges.

The CSU state group leader Alexander Hoffmann warns of such a scenario. “If the choice of this judge package fails in the Bundestag, the opposite of what the critics want threatens,” he told the German Press Agency. “Because nobody can answer the question of how the Federal Council should be able to enforce a single bourgeois-conservative candidate for the constitutional court. That would be fatal, because it would mean: The constitutional court is moving to the left, even though the Union has won the choice.”

It shouldn’t go without AfD or left

The CDU has excluded “coalitions and similar forms of cooperation with both the Left Party and the alternative for Germany” by party congress. The domestic spokeswoman for the left faction, Clara Bünger, asked ZDF “Morgenmagazin”: “We would like to have our own right of proposal for the judges.”

Half of the 16 judges of the Federal Constitutional Court are elected by the Bundestag and the Federal Council. There are currently three posts from the Bundestag. The CDU/CSU can suggest a candidate, two the SPD.

Bundestag on the election committee Federal Constitutional Court on judge election and other questions Federal Constitutional Court Act