With the votes of the CDU, the state parliament in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania elected a woman to the constitutional court who mocked the GDR wall dead and is a member of the “anti-capitalist left” suspected of extremism. A devastating signal, says Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, a woman has recently been watching over the constitution, which, according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, is itself suspected of extremism as a member of the “anti-capitalist left”. The left-wing politician Barbara Borchardt owes her election with the necessary two-thirds majority of the state parliament also to votes from members of the CDU that co-ruled in Schwerin - which explains why the process was not immediately named as what it is: one in German post-war justice history unique scandal.
In an interview, the new constitutional judge has now ensured that this will change - with her unprecedented set-off of the dead of the wall against GDR border guards who were killed. As the Federal Government's East German commissioner is right to be outraged, this is an intolerable mockery of the victims of the GDR dictatorship. As early as 2011, when the state parliament commemorated the 50th anniversary of the building of the wall, the politician had demonstratively remained seated. Barbara Borchardt does not even try to appear moderate after being elected to the State Constitutional Court.
This offends the relatives of the victims and disqualifies the 64-year-old for her new position. But what is even worse: it shakes trust in the constitutional court and in the democratic constitutional state. The CDU has to ask which toads it intends to swallow to keep parliamentary operations as smooth as possible.