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AfD parliamentary group leader Stephan Brandner in the Bundestag
Photo: HAYOUNG JEON / EPA-EFE / REX
In December, the AfD parliamentary group failed in three parliamentary committees with their respective candidates for the chairmanship.
Now the parliamentary group is suing the Federal Constitutional Court against the non-appointment with applicants from its ranks.
In Karlsruhe, a so-called organ dispute procedure was initiated on December 31, the parliamentary group said.
The interior committee had rejected the police chief inspector Martin Hess as chairman.
The candidates Jörg Schneider and Dietmar Friedhoff, who were also nominated by the AfD, failed in the health committee and in the committee for development cooperation.
Previously, contrary to the usual procedure, it had been decided to decide on the chair in a secret ballot.
It is a disregard of the right to equal and fair participation in parliament and a violation of constitutionally anchored democratic principles, the AfD parliamentary group explains its move to Karlsruhe and the associated urgent motion.
Group manager and legal advisor Stephan Brandner spoke of a "breach of decades of practice".
Voting versus award mechanism
The chairmanship of the committees is usually assigned according to a certain mechanism: the largest group may choose a committee first, then the second largest, the third largest, and so on. This goes on over several rounds until the chairs of the committees are distributed. So the AfD originally came to the Interior, Health and Development Committee. Usually the chairmen are seated without a vote. According to the AfD candidates in the constituent meetings of the committees in December, MPs from other parliamentary groups then requested votes on the chairmanship - and were able to reject the AfD MPs.
Bundestag Vice President Petra Pau (left) defended the procedure: "Other committees were also elected," she told the newspapers of the editorial network Germany (RND).
"The results are to be accepted."
mrc / dpa