The traffic light government wants to protect the Federal Constitutional Court from the AfD and thus has the opposition on its side. The CDU is campaigning for a change in the law from within its ranks, according to a report.
The traffic light coalition wants to protect the Federal Constitutional Court from extreme parties and is supported by the opposition. According to a report, the idea of protecting the Federal Constitutional Court more strongly from possible attempts to disempower it by amending the Basic Law is well received in the Union. “We share the concern about party political influence on the judiciary and in particular the Federal Constitutional Court,” said parliamentary group vice-president Andrea Lindholz (CSU) to the newspapers of the Funke media group on Tuesday. The topic is important and should be discussed “on a broad basis”.
The aim is to avoid a situation like that in Poland, where the Constitutional Court collapsed under pressure from the then ruling Law and Justice party (PiS). Changing the Basic Law requires a two-thirds majority, which the government factions alone do not have.
The background to the considerations is the concern that extreme parties will gain strength in the federal government. Should they ever gain a parliamentary majority, they could relatively easily eliminate the Federal Constitutional Court as the central supervisory authority.
Change to the Basic Law in sight
The parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner, had previously explained in the “Welt am Sonntag” that the Basic Law allows the Federal Constitutional Court law to be changed with a simple majority. “We should make it a two-thirds majority.”
Meanwhile, the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND), citing coalition and opposition circles, reported that the traffic light factions and the Union agreed “in principle” on the issue. The change to the Basic Law should come soon.
FDP: Protect the constitution against “enemies of democracy”.
The decision is based on a debate about how the judiciary, particularly the Federal Constitutional Court, can be protected from possible influence by the AfD. Representatives of the SPD and FDP made an attempt to do this at the weekend. “According to the Basic Law, the Federal Constitutional Court Act can be changed with a simple majority,” the parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner, told “Welt am Sonntag”. “We should make this a two-thirds majority.”
The parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae, had called for parliamentarism and the constitutional judiciary to be made “more resilient against enemies of democracy”. Essential structures of the Federal Constitutional Court should be anchored in the Basic Law. A two-thirds majority is required for a change to the Basic Law, which the traffic light alone does not have.
Source: Stern
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