Thuringian state parliament: State parliament crisis: CDU successful at the constitutional court

An interim order from the Constitutional Court in Weimar enables the Thuringian parliament to emerge from the crisis and elect a state parliament president. The CDU parliamentary group, which saw its parliamentary rights severely restricted by the AfD’s senior president, Jürgen Treutler, was largely successful in its application to the Constitutional Court. In an urgent decision, the constitutional judges set clear rules for the AfD senior president, who has been heavily criticized.

He now has to let Parliament vote on an updated agenda. The state parliament is also allowed to change its rules of procedure before the leadership of the state parliament is elected. The court’s decision was unanimous. Parliament wants to meet again in Erfurt this Saturday.

What the constitutional judges decided

In their decision, the constitutional judges also gave a kind of direction on how the meeting would proceed: Treutler must therefore appoint the provisional secretaries, determine whether the state parliament has a quorum and put the agenda presented by the previous state parliament president to a vote in mid-September. The meeting should then continue in the order of the agreed agenda. The AfD and Treutler had previously represented a different legal opinion.

MPs are allowed to change electoral procedures

According to the announcement, the court made it clear that the MPs have the right to decide on the agenda in the constituent session. “This means that a debate and resolution on a change to the rules of procedure is permitted before the election of the President of the State Parliament.”

The constitutional judges explained: “The intended regulation, which stipulates that all factions – and not just the strongest faction – are allowed to submit nominations for the election of the President of the State Parliament in the first round of voting, does not violate constitutional law.”

The CDU appealed to Thuringia’s highest court as a last resort after a chaotic state parliament session on Thursday with numerous interruptions and Treutler’s denial of speech and motion rights. The BSW, the Left and the SPD also joined their application.

The background is a tug of war over the right to nominate the presidential office. The AfD has so far insisted on filling the second highest state office in Thuringia because it is the strongest faction in a German state parliament for the first time. She is resisting a proposal from the CDU and BSW that would allow all parliamentary groups to submit personnel proposals in the first round of voting.

Criticism of the AfD’s actions

The chaotic course of the state parliament session and the actions of the AfD caused a stir and criticism nationwide. The Jena constitutional lawyer Michael Brenner accused the AfD of instrumentalizing the meeting “in order to demonstrate a bit of democracy, the rules of procedure and perhaps also the Thuringian constitution and to test the limits.”

For Federal Council President Manuela Schwesig (SPD), the crisis in the Thuringian state parliament shows that the AfD is not a party that should bear responsibility. She said on the sidelines of a Federal Council meeting in Berlin: “Every citizen must know that the chaos that the AfD is causing, this arbitrariness, will prevail in every area of ​​our lives, whether in the area of ​​health, whether in the area of ​​education and the like Economy if the AfD comes into government responsibility.” Thuringia’s left-wing parliamentary group leader Christian Schaft accused the AfD of an “attempted coup against democracy.”

Last minute changes to the rules of procedure

The election passage in the rules of procedure was already discussed in the Thuringian state parliament in the spring at the initiative of the Greens in order to prevent chaos in the election of the state parliament president. However, there was no sign of a majority in parliament for this. Instead, there was an agreement in the Council of Elders for a procedure to which the AfD now does not feel bound. The AfD said it abstained at the time.

The President of the State Parliament represents the parliament in Thuringia; he can convene the State Parliament at any time and heads the State Parliament administration. In a prime ministerial election, the president is responsible for ensuring that everything runs smoothly.