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Ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU)
Photo: Filip Singer/EPA
In February 2020, Angela Merkel (CDU) called it "unforgivable" that the FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich had been elected Prime Minister in Thuringia with AfD votes.
The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the Chancellor at the time violated her duty of neutrality.
The judges ruled in a judgment that has now been announced that Merkel violated the principle of equal opportunities for the parties.
The Karlsruhe judges ruled after two lawsuits by the AfD against the former Chancellor and the federal government.
One lawsuit was directed against Merkel's statement, the other against the publication of Merkel's statement on official government websites, among other places.
As a result, the AfD saw its right to equal opportunities in political competition violated.
The background is events on February 5, 2020 in the Erfurt state parliament.
At that time, Bodo Ramelow (left) wanted to be re-elected Prime Minister.
He didn't get enough votes in the first two ballots.
In the third ballot, Kemmerich surprisingly beat him by one vote - co-elected by the CDU and AfD.
It was the first time that the AfD helped a prime minister into office.
Merkel, who was traveling at the time, spoke up the day after the election and prefaced her press conference with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a “preliminary remark” “for domestic political reasons”.
The result must be "undone," she said, at least the CDU should not participate in this government.
And: "It was a bad day for democracy." A transcript of the press conference was meanwhile available on bundeskanzlerin.de and bundesregierung.de.
AfD was successful against Seehofer
Kemmerich resigned after three days under the high pressure, he had been in office without a government until March.
Ramelow became prime minister again.
In Karlsruhe, the AfD has repeatedly opposed critical statements by members of the government.
The party successfully sued former Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) because an interview with passages critical of the AfD was on his ministry website.
And Johanna Wanka (CDU) was reprimanded during her time as Minister of Education for having called for the "red card" for the AfD in a ministry statement.
According to these judgments, politicians are allowed to publicly criticize the AfD.
However, they must uphold the principle of state neutrality when expressing themselves in their role as members of the government.
In the Karlsruhe negotiations on the Thuringia elections in July 2021, Merkel's Chancellor Helge Braun (CDU) defended the statements by saying that the journalists traveling with them and, above all, the coalition partner wanted a position.
It was also about the international reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Regarding the transcripts on the website, he said that press conferences were always documented verbatim and in full.
Journalists would rely on that.
The AfD had rated the statements as a direct attack.
"We think that such an attack, especially during an official state visit under the logo of the Federal Chancellor, is unconstitutional and that Mrs Merkel has violated her duty of neutrality," said Vice-Chairman Stephan Brandner.
The then co-party leader Jörg Meuthen, who has since left the AfD, said: "She tried to delegitimize a state election, in the exercise of her office as Chancellor."
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til/ulz/dpa/AFP/Reuters