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Kemmerich election - Braun justifies Merkel's statements

2021-07-21T10:59:29.346Z


A year and a half ago, the AfD helped a prime minister into office for the first time, and the Chancellor called the process on a trip to South Africa “unforgivable”. Was she allowed to say something like that?


A year and a half ago, the AfD helped a prime minister into office for the first time, and the Chancellor called the process on a trip to South Africa “unforgivable”.

Was she allowed to say something like that?

Karlsruhe - Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) had her statements on the Thuringia election justified by her head of the Chancellery on a trip to South Africa in February 2020 before the Federal Constitutional Court.

The CDU politician Helge Braun said in Karlsruhe that both the traveling journalists and the coalition partners wanted a position.

It was also about maintaining the international reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Elected Prime Minister with AfD votes

On February 5, 2020, FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich was elected Prime Minister in the Erfurt state parliament with votes from AfD, CDU and FDP.

Merkel had described the events at a press conference at a state reception as "unforgivable", the result must be "reversed".

The complaining AfD assessed Merkel's statements as a direct attack. "We believe that such an attack, especially during an official state visit under the Chancellor's logo, is unconstitutional and that Ms. Merkel has violated her duty of neutrality," said Vice-Chairman Stephan Brandner before the start of the negotiations. Party leader Jörg Meuthen said: "She tried to delegitimize a state election in the exercise of her office as Federal Chancellor."

Actually, the left-wing politician Bodo Ramelow wanted to be re-elected as head of government in the Erfurt state parliament.

He did not get enough votes in the first two ballots.

In the third ballot, the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich, completely surprisingly, beat him for one vote - co-elected by the CDU and AfD.

It was the first time that the AfD helped a prime minister into office.

Three days later, Kemmerich resigned under pressure, and he continued to conduct official business without a government until March.

"It was a bad day for democracy"

Merkel, who was currently traveling, had spoken the day after the election and had preceded her press conference with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a “preliminary remark” “for domestic political reasons”.

At least the CDU should not participate in this government, she said.

“It was a bad day for democracy.” A transcript of the press conference was meanwhile available on bundeskanzlerin.de and bundesregierung.de.

Braun said that press conferences are basically literally and completely documented, and that nothing will be deleted.

Journalists would rely on that.

Rejection request from the AfD rejected

The AfD has already successfully sued Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) in Karlsruhe because an interview with AfD-critical passages was on his ministry page.

And Johanna Wanka (CDU) was reprimanded during her time as education minister for calling for the “red card” for the AfD in a ministry announcement.

According to these judgments, politicians may publicly criticize the AfD.

However, they must comply with the requirement of state neutrality when expressing their role as a member of the government.

At the start of the negotiation, the constitutional judges of the Second Senate rejected a rejection request from the AfD that had been submitted just under two weeks ago.

The AfD had justified this with a visit by a delegation from the court to the Federal Chancellery with a joint dinner on June 30th.

Vice President Doris König said that if these regular meetings cast doubt on impartiality, an exchange of the highest constitutional bodies would be impossible. "In addition, it would express a distrust of the members of the Federal Constitutional Court, which contradicts the constitutional and basic legal image of the constitutional judge," said the court. Experience shows that the verdict will be announced in a few months. (Az. 2 BvE 4/20 et al.) Dpa

Source: merkur

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