Resilience against enemies of democracy
Traffic light politicians want to arm the Federal Constitutional Court
January 28, 2024, 2:17 a.m
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As the AfD gains strength, there is growing concern that the party could try to restructure state institutions in its favor. According to a media report, the federal government is currently considering, among other things, protecting the Federal Constitutional Court against possible influences.
The federal government is considering giving the Federal Constitutional Court greater protection against possible attempts to disempower it. Representatives of the SPD and FDP factions are in favor of a corresponding change to the Basic Law. “According to the Basic Law, the Federal Constitutional Court Act can be changed with a simple majority,” said the parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner, to “Welt am Sonntag”. “We should make this a two-thirds majority.”
The parliamentary managing director of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae, said: “We must make parliamentarism and the constitutional judiciary more resilient against enemies of democracy. Essential structures of the Federal Constitutional Court should be anchored in the Basic Law.”
For him, this includes “dividing the court into two senates, establishing the twelve-year term of office of judges and stipulating that the court can decide on its own distribution of business and its way of working.” A change to this regulation would then only be possible with a two-thirds majority, said Thomae. So far it can be changed with a simple majority. When electing constitutional judges, however, a two-thirds majority is already required. It would therefore be conceivable that the AfD would block judicial elections if it were to win a third of the Bundestag mandates in the future.
The background to the considerations are concerns about the rise of extreme parties in the federal government. It is feared that if they ever achieve a parliamentary majority, they could relatively easily eliminate the Federal Constitutional Court as the central supervisory authority. “In Poland we have seen how quickly a constitutional court can be paralyzed when simple majorities can change the way the court works,” said Fechner. “Even supposedly unproblematic changes enable a blockage: For example, the requirement to process all applications according to the date of receipt. Or the requirement to provide detailed reasons for all decisions. This can lead to the Constitutional Court no longer being able to repeal unconstitutional laws.”