Status: 09/30/2022 12:53 p.m
Cases of right-wing extremism in the civil service made headlines nationwide. Brandenburg now wants to introduce a constitutional loyalty check for civil servants. Other countries are also thinking about it. Is this going too far?
Anyone who wants to be a civil servant in Brandenburg and wants to become a teacher, police officer or judge should in future be checked for compliance with the constitution – at least that’s the plan of Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU). With such a constitutional loyalty check, Brandenburg would be the first federal state with a constitutional standard query for all professional groups of civil servants.
In the past, there had been several cases of right-wing extremism in the police, armed forces and other state services nationwide. With the planned law, however, “extremists of all persuasions” are to be checked before they become officials.
The so-called rule query is intended to provide information on whether the applicants have taken part in anti-constitutional events, whether they have attracted attention for hate speech or membership in associations monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and whether they have worn anti-constitutional symbols. Information from behavior in public, from social media or other public spaces should be used.
project is controversial
Criticism of the draft law to review constitutional loyalty has come from a variety of quarters. The Greens, who are co-governing in Brandenburg, are skeptical about the project. They question its effectiveness, as does the opposition Left Party in Brandenburg. The AfD fears an attitude law: “For you, anyone who doesn’t share your opinion is a right-wing extremist,” says the AfD’s domestic policy spokeswoman, Lena Kotrè.
Criticism also comes from the Education and Science teachers’ union, who fear general suspicion: “Against the background of the practice of banning jobs in the old Federal Republic and the biographies of people in East Germany, it is very difficult to convey that this is a sensible approach,” says Günther Fuchs from the GEW.
Constitutional lawyer demands transparency
In principle, it is legitimate for the state to check whether civil servants are constitutional, says Ulrich Battis, emeritus state and constitutional lawyer at Humboldt University in Berlin. He emphasizes the need for a transparent, due process. It’s important to keep the results of a review transparent, Battis said.
He demands that “in the event that a civil servant candidate is rejected, everything that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has presented is disclosed so that it can be checked.” It cannot be enough for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to write something and the authorities ultimately not hire a person without stating a reason. That would be unconstitutional, Battis said.
Brandenburg as a model for other federal states
After research by tagesschau.de The federal states of Thuringia and Schleswig-Holstein are also considering similar regulations. According to the Ministry of the Interior, the discussion in Schleswig-Holstein is not yet over. “Legal and practical measures are currently being examined to ensure a uniform procedure for examining compliance with the constitution.” Thuringia is currently examining a constitutional compliance check at working group level.
In Brandenburg, the draft law is now being discussed in the interior committee. Until the constitutional loyalty check really comes, some debates are likely to be held.