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Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe: The verdict is expected on Wednesday
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
Three years ago the Bundestag voted to increase state party funding.
The Federal Constitutional Court is now negotiating it.
From Tuesday, the judges will meet and review the decision.
Specifically, it is about an increase of 25 million euros. In 2018, with votes from the Union and the SPD, the Bundestag increased the absolute upper limit for the state share to 190 million euros by this annual amount. The parliamentary groups of the black-red government majority argued primarily with higher spending due to digitization, for example for data security, moderation of interactive websites and defense against hackers. The opposition, however, ran a storm. Negotiations are now taking place in Karlsruhe for two days - because of the corona pandemic on the exhibition grounds.
Smaller parties also benefit from the increase - even those that are not represented in the Bundestag. But the reasons for the change in the law were too short for the opposition at the time. The Constitutional Court made specifications for this in an earlier judgment. In addition, the grand coalition decided on the substantial financial injection at the start of the soccer World Cup within just a few days. The other parties clashed at the pace as well.
216 MPs from the Greens, the Left Party and the FDP came together for a norm review application (2 BvF 2/18).
They see a violation of the principle of freedom of the parties enshrined in the Basic Law.
Manuela Rottmann (Greens) explained before the negotiation: "The binding of the level of party funding to constitutionally verifiable principles is important for the acceptance of the parties in society." State party funding is important for independence from politics.
"But the impression of self-service must absolutely be prevented." The Union and the SPD have not shown that the increase was essential to maintain the functionality of the parties.
AfD takes separate action against the Bundestag
The AfD parliamentary group wanted to join what the constitutional court declared inadmissible. It is now proceeding in what is known as an organ dispute against the German Bundestag, since it sees its parliamentary participation rights and because of the urgency in its right to be able to mobilize oppositional currents in the population in an important legislative process violated (2 BvE 5/18).
Both procedures are negotiated together.
Probably because of the ongoing exploratory talks, according to a court spokesman, representatives of the federal offices or federal treasurers are expected from all parties.
Among those who have announced themselves are CSU general secretary Markus Blume, the parliamentary managing directors of the parliamentary groups of the SPD and FDP, Carsten Schneider and Florian Toncar, the deputy AfD federal spokesman Stephan Brandner and Petra Pau from the Left.
A judgment is not yet expected on Wednesday, the second day of the trial.
asc / dpa
