AfD loses dispute over deputy in Upper Rhine Council
Published: Wednesday, Jul 24th 2024, 11:10
Volver a Live Feed
In the dispute over deputy positions in the so-called Upper Rhine Council, the Baden-Württemberg state parliamentary group of the AfD has failed before the state's Constitutional Court. The parliamentary group felt that its rights had been violated because its candidates had not been elected, as the court announced in Stuttgart on Wednesday. However, it had not sufficiently explained this.
The Upper Rhine Council is a cross-border body for political consultation. It is made up of delegations from Baden-Württemberg, the French region of Grand Est, several Swiss cantons and Rhineland-Palatinate. The Baden-Württemberg delegation consists of 26 members. Of these, 16 are members of the state parliament. For these members, 16 deputy parliamentary members are appointed.
The state parliament in Stuttgart had assumed that each parliamentary group was allowed to propose a number of candidates that corresponded to its strength. The AfD had also put forward candidates, the court explained. However, they had not been elected and the corresponding deputy posts were vacant.
The parliamentary group then turned to the Constitutional Court. It complained that its right to equal treatment of political groups had been impaired. However, the Court has now rejected the application as inadmissible.
The AfD parliamentary group assumed that it would be allowed to propose a number of candidates corresponding to its strength in the plenary and then only be selected from these or that the AfD would even have the right to nominate candidates, the Court explained. However, it had not explained why such a restriction of free choice should be justified.
The principle of free election can be restricted when appointing members to committees if the committee in question performs essential parliamentary tasks. However, the AfD parliamentary group had not dealt with the legal position of the Upper Rhine Council, its tasks and working methods - in particular, whether the deputy members perform tasks of the Landtag and whether the political will of the Landtag is formed in the Upper Rhine Council.
©Keystone/SDA
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic