As of: March 25, 2024, 10:14 a.m
By: Simon Schröder
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The Association for Freedom of Thought continues to strongly criticize Söder's cross decree.
Now the dispute should go before the Federal Constitutional Court.
A violation of the neutrality requirement?
Munich - In the fight against the Bavarian cruise decree, the Association for Freedom of Thought (BFG) wants to file a constitutional complaint before the Federal Constitutional Court.
After many years of criticism of the law, the next level of escalation is now looming.
“Since the Association for Freedom of Spirit in Munich, as a 'competitor' of the Christian religious communities, is violating its fundamental rights to equal treatment and freedom of religion through the state instruction to display the central Christian symbol in a clearly visible manner in the entrance area of the authorities obliged by the constitution to remain neutral “We are taking our lawsuit to the Federal Constitutional Court,” chairwoman Assunta Tammelleo confirmed earlier announcements on Sunday (March 24).
There is criticism of Markus Söder's cross decree for office buildings in Bavaria.
(Archive photo) © Sven Hoppe/dpa
BFG wants to sue against Söder's law: the Federal Constitutional Court should decide as the last instance
The BFG believes that the administrative regulation for hanging crosses in official buildings in Bavaria, which has existed since 2018, violates the state's requirement of neutrality.
In addition, the Christian religion is preferred over other world views.
The Bavarian judiciary has so far dismissed the lawsuits.
The Federal Administrative Court also rejected the appeal against the judgments.
The Federal Administrative Court decided in December that the crosses could remain in Bavaria's authorities and dismissed lawsuits against the controversial cross decree by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
The Leipzig judges believe that the regulation that has been in force since 2018 that a cross must hang in every state building in Bavaria is legal.
Söder's cross decree has repeatedly met with a lot of criticism since its decision in 2018
In April 2018, the Bavarian cabinet passed the cross decree on the initiative of Söder, who had recently become Prime Minister at the time.
Despite strong criticism - even from the churches, which accused Söder of misusing the Christian symbol for election campaign purposes - the decree came into force in June 2018.
Since then, paragraph 28 of the rules of procedure for the authorities of the Free State states: “A cross must be clearly visible in the entrance area of every office building as an expression of the historical and cultural character of Bavaria.”
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The Association for Freedom of Thought, on the other hand, supports the proposal to display Article 1 of the Basic Law in the buildings instead of a cross.
This article, according to which human dignity is inviolable, “can be supported by all people who stand on the basis of our Basic Law,” was the justification.
The Federal Administrative Court ruled in 2023 that the crosses do not violate the right to religious freedom of other ideological communities.
The court also rejected criticism that the crosses were a violation of Article 3 of the Basic Law, as the
Süddeutsche
reported.
Article 3 states that no person shall be discriminated against on the basis of their faith.
Now the BFG is trying to overturn the law as a final resort.
(dpa/AFP/SiSchr)