As of: January 31, 2024, 2:39 p.m
By: Lisa Mahnke
Comments
Press
Split
The Federal Constitutional Court should become “more resistant to change”.
The reason for this is the European shift to the right.
A two-thirds majority is necessary.
Berlin - Parts of the legislation on the Federal Constitutional Court can currently be changed with a simple majority, not everything is anchored in the Basic Law.
Now the missing aspects, which are currently enshrined in a separate law, should also be included in the Basic Law.
It should make the court “more resistant to change,” said constitutional lawyer Christoph Gusy to the
German Press Agency.
With the Basic Law anchored, a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority would be necessary to make changes to the Federal Constitutional Court.
The constitutional lawyer argued that one must now act preventively: “According to the motto: Defend the beginnings.” The separate law on the Federal Constitutional Court stipulates, among other things, the number of judges, the two-thirds majority required for the election of judges and the exclusion of re-election.
Strengthening “resilience”: Debate started by former constitutional judges
The court has appeared 27 times in the Basic Law so far, but not everything about the Federal Constitutional Court is written down there: “The Basic Law has so far been very economical when it comes to the Federal Constitutional Court,” criticized Gusy.
He is not surprised that the debate about the Constitutional Court is on the agenda right now: “We are realizing that democracies are more vulnerable than we thought for a long time.” Most recently, the posting of AfD judges to the Bavarian Constitutional Court was approved in Bavaria.
The debate about the enshrinement of the Basic Law started with an article by former constitutional judges Gabriele Britz and Michael Eichberger in the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
.
The two argued that the “resilience to uncertain political developments” had to be strengthened.
Traffic light coalition adopts proposal for the Federal Constitutional Court
Shortly afterwards, representatives of the traffic light coalition came forward to support the proposal.
The focus was on the PiS policy on the Constitutional Court in Poland, the Hungarian developments, but also the popularity of the AfD.
“We have seen in neighboring European countries how authoritarian forces are attacking the independent judiciary, the free press and democratic institutions,” argued Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD).
“Our constitutional state must not be allowed to be sabotaged from within.”
In view of the European shift to the right and the AfD poll numbers, a change to the Basic Law for the Federal Constitutional Court is being discussed.
© picture alliance/dpa |
Uli Deck
The parliamentary managing director of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae, also explained: The constitutional judiciary must be made “more resilient against enemies of democracy”.
“It is right to do these things now,” said Olaf Scholz (SPD) during a discussion in Potsdam.
However, he was also optimistic that the majority of the population would oppose right-wing extremist efforts.
“We are the most people,” said the Chancellor.
Union parliamentary group open to changing the Basic Law for the Federal Constitutional Court
According to the German Press Agency,
right-wing politician Helge Limburg (The Greens) spoke out
in favor of “broad solidarity between the democratic factions” in order to achieve a two-thirds majority to amend the Basic Law.
Some Union politicians, including the federal parliamentary group's legal policy spokesman Günter Krings and the parliamentary group deputy Andrea Lindholz (CSU), have already shown themselves to be open to more concrete suggestions.
The
Germany editorial network
reported that the traffic light coalition and the Union agreed “in principle”.
However, not all members of the Union faction were immediately convinced.
The parliamentary managing director of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei (CDU), warned against “any kind of quick shots”.
In his opinion, a blocking minority with a third of the votes would be much more likely than one party alone getting the majority.
With AfD poll numbers of 20 to 30 percent, such a blocking minority would not be unlikely.
Lawyers' Association and Judges' Association for traffic light suggestions for the Federal Constitutional Court
The German Lawyers' Association (DAV) welcomed the traffic light proposal for enshrining the Basic Law: "We must increase the resilience of our constitutional state," said DAV Vice President Ulrich Karpenstein, according to the
German Press Agency
.
At the moment there are “unfortunately still too many areas of attack”.
The DAV also spoke out in favor of the proposal that procedural and functional regulations could only be changed with the consent of the constitutional courts.
According to the DAV, for example, by temporarily occupying the Constitutional Court by the Federal Council, one could ensure “that radical blocking minorities cannot block the appointment of judges in the long term”.
So far, half of the total of 16 judges have been elected by the Bundestag and the Bundesrat with two-thirds majorities.
There is currently a debate in politics about a third senate for party-political disputes.
The Düsseldorf law professor Johannes Dietlein also argued for its anchoring in the Basic Law, “also to prevent the risk of abusive court packing”.
What this means is an expansion of the court and the selection of judges based on political leanings, like in the Supreme Court of the USA.
The German Association of Judges emphasized that the judiciary is the backbone of a democratic society.
(dpa/lismah)