Former AfD member of the Bundestag Maier sees himself being treated unfairly because he was unable to return to his position as a judge. But the Federal Court of Justice confirmed today: The judicial service court made no mistakes.
Jens Maier was chairman of the now officially dissolved “wing” of the AfD in Saxony. The Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers him a right-wing extremist. Among other things, because of such statements: Migration is the “creation of mixed peoples”, the coming to terms with the Nazis is a “guilt cult” and the right-wing extremist mass murderer Anders Breivik is just a desperate man because of so many “cultural strangers”.
Because of such statements, the Saxon Ministry of Justice has applied for Maier’s retirement. “It is important to us to protect the judiciary with this retirement, so that extremists have no place on the bench and do not dispense justice, because for us this is fundamental for the population’s trust in the integrity of the judiciary,” says Alexander Melzer , press spokesman for the Ministry of Justice in Saxony.
The judge’s service court in Leipzig confirmed at the end of 2022 that Maier could be retired. Maier had sued the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe against this. Maier spoke personally in the hearing. What he is said to have said is not true. The press in particular would give a distorted picture.
BGH sees no errors in the service court
The BGH did not follow this today. Maier’s lawsuit failed completely. The judges’ service court in Leipzig made no mistakes, according to the Karlsruhe judges.
The presiding judge Rüdiger Pamp stated the requirements for retirement. The behavior of a judge must seriously impair trust in the administration of justice:
This must be assumed, among other things, if the public’s trust in the person of the judge or in his administration of office has been damaged to such an extent that his jurisprudence no longer appears credible and at the same time public trust has been damaged by his remaining in the office entrusted to him would be eliminated or reduced in an independent and unbiased administration of justice.
That is exactly the case with Maier. He was a member of the right-wing extremist “wing” of the AfD. Although it has officially been dissolved, it is still active as a “supporting community” within the AfD.
Serious damage to the reputation of the judiciary
It is an association “whose political concept aims in particular at the permanent contempt for democratic institutions, the abolition of parliamentarism, the establishment of a ethnic social order with an ethnoculturally homogeneous state people, the blanket exclusion, contempt and deprivation of rights of migrants, Muslims and politically dissidents.” .
The public perception of Maier as a right-wing extremist is a result of his own behavior and not of artificial outrage in the media. Statements such as “cult of guilt” for coming to terms with the Nazis would contribute to this. He described himself as an “AfD judge” on Twitter. This leads to the impression that he is not independent. If he were to continue dispensing justice, one would have to worry that there would be serious damage to the reputation of the judiciary.
The fact that some of Maier’s statements came during a period in which he was a member of the German Bundestag does not speak against his retirement. Because he did not make the statements in question in parliament, but outside of it.
Maier is threatened with losing his judge’s salary
Alexander Mezler, spokesman for the Saxon Ministry of Justice, welcomed the verdict. Now it is important to concentrate on the second trial against Maier. The disciplinary action was brought in order to end the last connections “between the Saxon justice system and the judge in question”.
The aim of the Saxon Ministry of Justice is now to completely dismiss Maier from his judgeship with the help of a disciplinary complaint. He would then lose his salary and pension rights as a judge. Maier himself was no longer present when the verdict was announced.