The AfD parliamentary group wants to hold a citizens’ dialogue in Annweiler in the southern Palatinate at the end of March. But the city doesn’t want to rent a hall to the party. Now a court will decide.
The Hohenstaufensaal is something like the parlor of the town of Annweiler. The old building dates from the 1930s. The city just before the French border advertises that the listed building has been suitable for all kinds of events since it was extensively renovated and reopened – from weddings to concerts to congresses and seminars. The centerpiece is the light-flooded historical hall with a dark wooden ceiling, parquet and huge frescoes on the wall.
Hans-Erich Sobiesinsky walks through the room almost reverently. The lawyer and chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the city council has a mission: to prevent the AfD citizens’ dialogue with party leader Tino Chrupalla at this location at the end of March. Sobiesinsky has the maxim: Never again is now! He believes it is high time to stand up against right-wing extremist ideas.
SPD politician Hans-Erich Sobiesinsky wants to prevent the AfD event in the Hohenstaufensaal.
The lawyer is currently thinking a lot about the year 1933, when the National Socialists came to power in Germany: “Today these parallels fall from your eyes like scales, and I say, you no longer need to resist the beginnings.” The beginnings are already over. “And it is important to achieve the goal of draining this brown swamp with all the resources that the constitutional state gives us.”
For Sobiesinsky, this also includes not giving the AfD any space – in both senses of the word. Unlike at and for party events in previous years.
Speech in the city council: “The measure is full”
The AfD parliamentary group had reserved the municipal Hohenstaufensaal in Annweiler for a citizens’ dialogue on March 23rd. Keynote speaker: Party leader Tino Chrupalla. The reservation confirmation came from the city at the end of January.
It is not the first AfD event in this area. But this time there is resistance. In mid-February, Sobiesinsky gave a fiery speech to the city council. Under the impression of Correctiv’s research into the secret meeting in a villa near Potsdam at the end of November, he says: “The measure is full.” AfD representatives were also present at the event, which, among other things, discussed eviction plans.
“City politics’ finest hour”
The city council then voted almost unanimously for a proposal from the SPD and the Greens: the AfD should not get the Hohenstaufensaal. The non-party mayor Benjamin Seyfried calls the meeting “a great moment” for the Annweiler city council. He also believes that the AfD has now crossed a line that requires resistance.
Seyfried immediately suspects that the party will probably not just let this decision go. And he’s right: the AfD is fighting back. Even after the city announced that there was no valid rental agreement with the AfD for the event at the end of March. The party failed to return the signed reservation confirmation.
AfD goes to court
The AfD now wants to go to court to ensure that it can hold its event in Annweiler as planned. She has submitted a corresponding urgent application to the responsible administrative court in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse.
Andreas Bleck is spokesman for the Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland regional group of the AfD parliamentary group. He accuses the city of Annweiler of knowingly and willfully violating the state’s requirement of neutrality and equal opportunities for parties. In his opinion, the AfD parliamentary group has a public right to use the space.
Bleck speculates that the factions and the parties behind them in the city council apparently believe they can “take the state as their own prey.” They talked about democracy and, in his opinion, behaved anti-democratically.
Although the AfD did not sign the reservation confirmation for the Hohenstaufensaal, it is clear to Bleck: “The rental agreement between the city and the AfD parliamentary group was legally concluded – in the same way as with other previous rental agreements.”
The AfD wants to hold its citizens’ dialogue here: Interior view of the Hohenstaufensaal.
Not an isolated case
The city of Annweiler continues to see things differently. This is also stated in a statement that she wrote for the administrative court in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. According to its own information, the court is dealing with such a case for the first time.
However, it happens again and again across the country that municipalities do not want to make rooms available to the AfD. In Thuringia, for example, the city of Nordhausen recently did not want to rent its Sundhausen festival hall to the AfD parliamentary group. This event was also about a citizen dialogue. This case also ended up in court. With the result that the event took place.
Even in the current case in Annweiler, the AfD’s chances are not bad, says ARD-Legal expert Kolja Schwartz. In comparable cases, courts have repeatedly ruled that public sponsors of a town hall are not allowed to exclude individual parties at will if they generally also make their event hall available to parties.
Then the right to equal opportunities between the parties and the principle of equal treatment require that this applies to all parties that are not banned. Even if they – like the AfD – were observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
AfD plans further civil dialogue
The local politicians in Annweiler also know this. But they are also fundamentally concerned with taking a stand against right-wing extremist ideas.
In any case, the AfD says it is convinced that it will get justice in court: planning for the event in Annweiler is continuing. If this cannot take place on March 23rd as planned, then it will take place on another date, the party says.
Should the administrative court’s decision be in favor of the AfD, the non-party mayor Seyfried from Annweiler has already announced that he will lodge an objection. The fight for the Hohenstaufensaal is likely to continue.
Now, however, it is the administrative court in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse’s turn. From there it is said that it is not yet foreseeable when a decision will be made in the matter.