The Landtag-AfD failed again in an attempt to have a parliamentary group member elected to the Parliamentary Control Committee (PKG) in the Landtag. Among other things, the committee controls the work of the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In the secret election in the state parliament, AfD MP Franz Bergmüller clearly missed the necessary majority on Wednesday – he only got 19 of 135 votes cast. Six parliamentarians abstained, 110 voted no. The AfD parliamentary group currently has 19 members in the state parliament.
According to the law, the supervisory body consists of seven members, divided according to the strength of the parliamentary groups. The occupation is usually a formality. The AfD has been trying in vain for a place since it moved into the Bavarian state parliament in 2018.
Most recently, the AfD failed with a constitutional lawsuit aimed at forcing such a place. The parliamentary group sees its constitutional rights as an opposition parliamentary group being massively violated, as no member of its ranks has so far been elected to the supervisory body. In fact, all other parliamentary groups refused to vote for AfD candidates in four ballots in 2018 and 2019. At the end of August, however, the Bavarian Constitutional Court rejected a corresponding AfD application as inadmissible.
Members of the AfD have repeatedly come into the focus of the protection of the constitution in Germany and also in Bavaria because of their proximity or contacts in the right-wing extremist scene. The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution has also been monitoring the AfD’s youth organization, the “Young Alternative for Germany” (JA) and any follow-up activities of the now officially disbanded right-wing national so-called “wing”.
For its part, the AfD sees the protection of the constitution as an authority which is supposed to silence voices critical of the government. AfD parliamentary group leader Ulrich Singer said on Wednesday immediately after the announcement of the election result: “It is a scandal that the old AfD parties continue to refuse to send a parliamentary group member to the parliamentary control committee.” Singer accused the other parties of marginalizing the AfD and a “discrimination agenda”.
“The blanket exclusion of a democratic party – as well as an impeccable and honest candidate in the person of the Upper Bavarian AfD member of the state parliament Franz Bergmüller – is unworthy of a democracy. A large proportion of the citizens of Bavaria are systematically denied their vote in the state parliament,” argued the AfD -Faction leader.