Comments on the Kemmerich election: Karlsruhe is negotiating the Chancellor's duty of neutrality

The Federal Constitutional Court will negotiate in Karlsruhe on July 21st about how neutrally government members have to express themselves. It is about two lawsuits by the AfD, which are directed against Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the federal government, as the court announced on Thursday. The AfD believes that Merkel violated her duty of neutrality in the political battle of opinion by making a statement about the election of FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich as Thuringian Prime Minister in February 2020. (Ref. 2 BvE 4/20 and 2 BvE 5/20)

Kemmerich had surprisingly been elected Prime Minister on February 5, 2020 with the support of the CDU and AfD in Erfurt.

This triggered a wave of outrage nationwide.

The FDP politician resigned on February 8th.

Earlier, on February 6th, Merkel had said at a state reception in South Africa: “The election of this Prime Minister was a unique process that broke with a basic conviction for the CDU and for me, namely that no majorities were won with the help of the AfD should be. "

The process is "unforgivable", the result must be reversed.

"It was a bad day for democracy." The CDU was not allowed to participate in a government under Kemmerich.

It is atypical for the Chancellor to comment on domestic politics on trips abroad.

From the AfD's point of view, the Chancellor and the Federal Government have violated their duty to be neutral in the political battle of opinion and thus violated the AfD's right to equal opportunities for political parties, as the court announced on Thursday. With the statement and its publications, they had inadmissibly claimed official authority or state resources for “negative qualification” of the AfD.

According to the communication, the other side is of the opinion that neither the statement nor its publications are constitutionally objectionable.

Merkel did not speak in an official capacity, but as a party politician.

In addition, she only turned to the CDU.

The AfD is only indirectly affected.

The statement was then published for "reasons of the overall documentation" of the state reception.

The state parliament in Thuringia elected Kemmerich on February 5 last year in the third ballot with 45 out of 90 votes.

There were 44 votes for incumbent Bodo Ramelow (left), none for the AfD candidate Christoph Kindervater and one abstention.

Kemmerich resigned a few days later after nationwide criticism and ran the business without a government until March.