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Mainz (dpa / lrs) - After an opinion on the concept of race in the state constitution of Rhineland-Palatinate, the SPD, FDP and Greens propose an early change.
The CDU parliamentary group, however, advocates the principle of “thoroughness over speed”.
Four out of five parliamentary groups as well as Justice Minister Herbert Mertin (FDP) had spoken out in the state parliament in June that the scientific service should examine the concept of race in the constitution.
On the other hand, the AfD parliamentary group leader Uwe Junge spoke of a “completely unnecessary” and “ideological symbolic debate without any effect”.
The parliamentary managing directors of the three parliamentary groups in the traffic light government, Martin Haller (SPD), Marco Weber (FDP) and Pia Schellhammer (Greens) now declared that the state parliament's scientific service had shown that it was possible to use the concept of “race »And have also proposed viable alternatives.
An amendment to the state constitution is still possible during this electoral period.
Since the votes of the CDU members in parliament are necessary for this, the three parliamentary groups called on the CDU to take joint action.
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"Constitutional amendments must be well thought out and well-founded," said the parliamentary manager of the CDU parliamentary group, Martin Brandl.
His group therefore advocated «carefully weighing the pros and cons and listening to experts before changing the constitution».
Since the Basic Law and international agreements also use the term “race”, “a uniformly coordinated approach with a view to the next few months” makes sense.
In June, the CDU MP Bernhard Henter said that it was scientifically undisputed that the concept of human races had been refuted.
But there are no simple solutions to this “demanding discussion”.
A hearing of lawyers in the legal committee could therefore also be useful.
In its 34-page report, the scientific service stated that 8 of the 16 state constitutions currently contain provisions with the concept of race - often in connection with equality rights or prohibitions of discrimination.
The Landtag scholars pointed out that the new version of the Rhineland-Palatinate School Act passed this year had already deleted the term race - on the grounds that this term was historically charged and scientifically incorrect.
In the state constitution, the term is used for the protection of honor (Article 4) and for access to public office (Article 19).
The report opposes replacing the term with that of the ethnic minority.
This “suggests in a questionable way that there are actually groups of people to be separated according to biological characteristics”.
Instead, the report recommends that the constitution's need for protection be made clear with the terms racism and racist.
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It is therefore proposed to amend Article 4 of the state constitution so that “racist insults or those directed against individual persons or groups because of their membership of a religious, ideological or recognized political community” should be prosecuted by public prosecution.
For Article 19, the wording “without discrimination on the basis of racist criteria” is recommended.
Scientific service of the Landtag Rhineland-Palatinate on the concept of race in the state constitution