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Demonstrators of the Women's Political Council of the State of Brandenburg eV
Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa
On one of the last hot summer days of this extraordinary year, the lawyer Jelena von Achenbach started the fight against a democratic deficit.
It is the middle of August, 32 degrees Celsius, and they switched off the air conditioning in the negotiating room in Potsdam to prevent the spread of the corona virus.
The trial lasted eight hours that day in front of the Brandenburg Constitutional Court.
It's about equality - and how to enforce it by law.
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Jelena von Achenbach
Photo: Simone Ahrend
The 37-year-old von Achenbach is fighting here as the legal representative of the state parliament for the first parity law in Germany, which came into force last year under the red-red previous government in Brandenburg.
In the future, the list positions of the parties in state elections are to be occupied alternately by women and men.
AfD and NPD, on the other hand, have gone to court.
How does it end?
Completely open.
This Friday the court in Potsdam wants to announce its decision.
If the Brandenburg law also overturns, parity in state parliaments is history for the time being
The attempt to enforce quotas for women in German politics is lengthy and tough.
In the past few years there have been repeated considerations as to how more women could get into politics.
However, so far only two state parliaments had passed election amendment laws that stipulate that the election lists be quoted.
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