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Thuringian Left Vice Steffen Dittes: a "legally flawed practice"
Photo:
Jacob Schröter / imago images / Jacob Schröter
According to information from SPIEGEL, the Thuringian left-wing state vice-president Steffen Dittes does not want to undergo the planned security check by the state protection of the constitution.
Dittes was elected a member of the Parliamentary Control Commission (PKK) in the state parliament.
So far, all members had always submitted to the review by the security authorities, it is said.
Members of the PKK are given access to secret information relating to the protection of the constitution.
As a rule, they are informed about the events on a monthly basis by the Minister of the Interior.
The old Parliamentary Control Commission is currently still meeting in Thuringia, as the AfD successfully sued the establishment of the new body last week by means of an urgent motion.
So far, no AfD MP has been elected to the five-member commission, as all the candidates nominated by the party in parliament failed.
The AfD's access to the PKK is also viewed as sensitive by other parties because the entire Thuringian AfD regional association is led by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected case in the area of right-wing extremism.
When asked, Dittes said the security check of PKK members was, in his opinion, a "flawed practice" and referred to a law that exempts MPs from a security check.
As state vice-president, Dittes is in contact with the internal party communist platform, which is listed in the 2019 report on the protection of the constitution under the item "Extremist structures of the DIE LINKE party".
For years there has been a discussion about Dittes and the protection of the constitution in Thuringia.
In 2002, the CDU Interior Minister Christian Köckert obtained information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution about the then 28-year-old PDS member of the state parliament, Dittes.
The security authority had created a personal dossier about him.
Dittes says there is "no connection with any security clearance and my assessment of it", as this information is already public.
Dittes is considered a possible successor to the party and parliamentary group chairmanship in Thuringia, should Susanne Hennig-Wellsow be elected federal chairman of the Left.
The election will take place at the Left Federal Party Congress at the end of October in Erfurt.
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