The Corona Protection Ordinance issued in Saxony in April 2020 and the ban on assembly specified therein was disproportionate. The Federal Administrative Court decided this Wednesday. This serious encroachment on the freedom of assembly under pandemic conditions was not compatible with the principle of proportionality. According to the Saxon Corona Protection Ordinance, all events, meetings and other gatherings were prohibited. In individual cases, special permits could be applied for if this was justifiable from the point of view of infection protection and a minimum distance of 1.50 meters between the participants was maintained.
A man from Dresden had complained. He was not in agreement with many measures restricting fundamental rights provided for in the regulation and wanted to protest together with other people in front of the main entrance of the responsible state ministry, writes the Federal Administrative Court on its website. He also wanted to sit down with two people in his apartment to discuss the measures and plan a political commitment. Both had been denied to him without prior application for a special permit.
Other states had issued similar regulations. In November 2022, the Federal Administrative Court had already declared the Bavarian exit restrictions of April 2020 to be disproportionate. The judgment stated that the ban on leaving one’s own apartment without a good reason was not compatible with the principle of proportionality. Bavaria’s Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) then declared that he wanted to refund the fines that had been paid.