The AfD is suing for committee chairs in the Bundestag

The AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag has three committee chairs, but the candidates failed in the election. The Federal Constitutional Court is now hearing the AfD’s lawsuits.

This had never happened before in the history of the Bundestag: In the last legislative period, in November 2019, the chairman of the AfD’s Legal Affairs Committee, Stephan Brandner, was voted out. “This is a unique event,” commented Marco Buschmann (FDP), now Federal Minister of Justice, when the AfD man was voted out. But this was also preceded by “one-off derailments”.

And the derailments that Buschmann means were indeed clear. After the anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Halle, Brandner shared a tweet. It complained that after the attack in Halle, politicians “loitered around” mosques and synagogues with candles, but that the victims of the attack were ultimately German.

Non-stop provocations

“He incited against minorities with unspeakable tweets.” This is how Johannes Fechner (SPD) assesses Brandner’s statements. Brandner later apologized for his retweet about Halle, but remained in the headlines with similar statements. He described the Federal Cross of Merit for the AfD-critical singer Udo Lindenberg as a “Judas’ reward.” Also a statement that was classified by many as anti-Semitic.

Brandner’s appearance sparked outrage beyond the Bundestag’s Legal Affairs Committee. The German Judges’ Association (DRB) and the German Lawyers’ Association (DAV) also welcomed the AfD man’s deselection from the important post of chairman of the legal committee.

The first lawsuit on this issue

Brandner, however, remained unreasonable. His deselection was “simply an old party coalition, as always takes place against the AfD.” “No matter what we do: They want me gone. They want to kick the AfD in the shins,” said Brandner. The AfD parliamentary group has sued against his deselection in Karlsruhe.

The Constitutional Court must now, for the first time, hear the question of whether a Bundestag committee can vote out its chairman. There is no express regulation on this in the Bundestag’s rules of procedure.

It doesn’t have to, says Green MP Britta Haßelmann. Because Stephan Brandner was elected as chairman of the legal committee. “And whoever has been elected as chairman can also be voted out.”

It’s currently about three Bundestag committees

Today, Karlsruhe is negotiating a very fundamental question: Will the AfD’s parliamentary participation and opposition rights in the Bundestag be violated if the committee majority votes out a chairman that the AfD itself has chosen – for a position that would normally be available to it according to the rules of procedure?

In addition to this question, another lawsuit from the AfD is on the table in Karlsruhe today: According to the Bundestag’s rules of procedure, each faction is fundamentally entitled to chair committees, depending on their strength. After the last federal election, the AfD was given the right to chair three committees – interior affairs, health, economic cooperation and development. But the three AfD candidates each failed in the elections. This violated their equal participation in parliament, according to the AfD parliamentary group.

As in the case of Brandner, the proceedings in Karlsruhe will now involve a balancing act: on the one hand, the rights of the AfD parliamentary group to chair a committee, and on the other hand, the right of the Bundestag committees to democratically elect or deselect their chairmen. Karlsruhe will have to clarify whether the appointment of committee chairs is based on the majority principle or not.

Urgent applications failed

The AfD had tried to get legal protection in Karlsruhe with urgent applications. But it failed in all cases. However, it does not necessarily follow from this that the AfD has low chances in the main. Because in the urgent proceedings, Karlsruhe said: It is not completely ruled out from the outset that the rights of the AfD faction are violated.

In any case, some of the questions raised by the AfD lawsuits are new legal territory. After the trial, it will take a few months until a verdict is reached.

In connection with the committee chairs, AfD MP Kay-Uwe Ziegler caused a scandal in the Health Committee last week. He had sat down in the seat of the acting chairman of the Greens, put up a sign in front of him that read “Committee Chairman” and initially refused to vacate the seat. He is therefore expected to be fined 1,000 euros.

Many complaints from the AfD in Karlsruhe

Justice reporters in Karlsruhe observe that the number of AfD lawsuits before the Federal Constitutional Court has increased significantly. There are 22 lawsuits. In 2023 alone, nine lawsuits were received.

In terms of content, these proceedings concern, for example, statements made by members of the government about the AfD in the Bundestag, calls to order against AfD MPs or the quorum of the Bundestag plenum at two night sessions.

The many lawsuits have recently raised the question of whether the Constitutional Court is being deliberately overwhelmed with lawsuits. This question was also a topic at the Federal Constitutional Court’s annual press conference last week.