Rhineland-Palatinate: AfD members closed to the public service

In the future, AfD members will be closed to the public service in Rhineland-Palatinate. Interior Minister Michael Ebling (SPD) in Mainz announced a tightening of the employment practice into the civil service.

“The constitutional loyalty is no wish, no recommendation, no lip service, it is the immovable obligation of every official in our country,” emphasized the minister. “Anyone who puts themselves in the service of this state must be loyal at all times, without ifs and buts.”

In the future, a written instruction about the constitutional fidelity will be mandatory in the future. All applicants would have to explain that they do not belong to any extremist organization or have listened to in the past five years.

Part of this will be a list of extremist groups and organizations that is regularly updated by the constitutional protection, in which there are actually sufficient indications for anti -constitutional efforts. “The AfD will therefore also be managed on this list,” said the Interior Minister.

The AfD is observed by the constitutional protection in Rhineland-Palatinate. Ebling had recently said when the constitutional protection report was presented that the AfD no longer had a moderate wing, the radicalization increased.

Before the AfD was classified by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of the Interior had already started to sharpen the legal foundations in order to be able to consistently counter enemies of the constitution in the public service, the Interior Minister said. The centerpiece is the new version of the administrative regulation as a duty to protect the constitution in the public service.

Anyone who refused the future explanation and doubts about their own constitutional loyalty will not be put into the public service, said Ebling. Such doubts already exist if a person is a member of an organization who is processed as a suspected case.

The AfD reacts with massive criticism of the Interior Minister and accuses Ebling of the unconstitutional methods. “Because he and the SPD know that there is no basis for an AfD ban, Ebling reaches for anti-democratic means and threatens AfD members with professional bans,” said the AfD member of the Bundestag and Vice-Landes President Sebastian Münzenmaier. Instead of concrete allegations, every AfD member is now being put under general suspicion.

The Interior Minister is calling for a reversal of the burden of proof for all future civil servants and employees in the public service. “This is a political declaration of bankruptcy and an attack on the liberal democratic basic order,” criticized Münzenmaier. “Ebleing enactment occurs with the Basic Legal Freedom of Parties with feet.”

AfD parliamentary group leader Jan Bollinger complained: “If the mere party membership-without concrete misconduct-can decide on an attitude and can result in disciplinary consequences, the action of an official, but his political thinking, no longer counts.” He advised those affected to defend themselves legally. The AfD parliamentary group will resist the plans politically and legally.

The CDU spoke of a political staging. “Constitutional enemies do not belong in the civil service, we agree with it,” said party leader Gordon Schnieder. “However, what Interior Minister Ebling is presenting today is more show than substance.”

Recently, Ebling himself emphasized that such a step could only take place in the marginal deprivation with the other federal states and the federal government and that the result of the lawsuit against the classification by the constitutional protection must be awaited. Instead of legal certainty, the minister now provides a political staging. The top priority must be the legal certainty of such a decision and Ebling’s advance is clearly too early.

The Interior Minister said to his decision: “Because a suspicion means that there are sufficient evidence that can be proven to be anti -constitutional.” And further: “In the case of the AfD, there is also a direction of direction within the party in which the anti -constitutional forces could prevail.”

The new rules do not apply to teachers, police officers, police officers and other civil servants, but as before the State Disciplinary Act, as the Ministry announced.

If there are specific indications of already employed, which justify the suspicion of a service offense – such as a violation of the constitutional obligation – a disciplinary procedure must then be initially initiated. If a offense is proven, this could lead to a distance from the civil service relationship. However, it always depends on the total circumstances of the individual case. “A schematic view is not possible.”