The election of AfD member Bert Matthias Gärtner as deputy lay judge in the Baden-Württemberg state constitutional court will have political consequences: “We will clarify where the at least 20 yes votes from the democratic parliamentary groups came from.

That was a moment of surprise, "said the parliamentary manager of the Greens parliamentary group, Hans-Ulrich Sckerl, of the FAZ on Friday.

The choice of Gärtner was criticized by the SPD, the Left Party, the green member of the Bundestag Cem Özdemir and the Green Youth.

The Green Youth demanded: “No abstention from fascists.

The vote in the state parliament for the election of an AfD candidate should not have run like this. "

Rudiger Soldt

Political correspondent in Baden-Württemberg.

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Gärtner was elected on Thursday with 37 votes in favor, 77 abstentions and 32 against, a simple majority is sufficient. If the proportion of no votes in the green parliamentary group had been higher, Gärtner could have been prevented. If the CDU, Greens, FDP had intended to equip gardeners with weak legitimation and they wanted to prevent permanent election proposals from the AfD, they would have had to ensure more abstentions. He will now represent a constitutional judge proposed by the Greens if she is not present.

In 2016, the state parliament had already elected Rosa-Maria Reiter, a lay judge, to the court at the suggestion of the AfD.

In 2018, the bank clerk Sabine Reger was elected at the suggestion of the AfD.

The problem with Gärtner's choice is that he is an employee of the AfD parliamentary group, judges at the constitutional court should be independent, prominent personalities.

Provided by law?

The Greens justify the procedure by pointing out that the state parliament's rules of procedure and the Constitutional Court Act stipulate that the majority in the state parliament should be taken into account when filling judicial posts. The relevant legal commentary, edited by Volker Haug, sees it differently: The opposition has "no legally guaranteed say", in practice the election proposals were based "on agreements between the parliamentary groups", with mostly only the larger parliamentary groups or those in charge of the government being involved . In 2016, for the first time in a by-election, "a relatively small parliamentary group", meaning the AfD, was granted an independent right to make proposals: "This was not legally mandatory."