The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution may continue to inform the public about suspected cases of extremism, including by parties.
On Friday in Potsdam, the Brandenburg Constitutional Court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the AfD parliamentary group and thus approved the naming of political parties in the report for the protection of the constitution, even before anti-constitutional efforts had been established with certainty.
The decision cannot be appealed.
The President of the Constitutional Court, Markus Möller, said that the public should be informed about actual indications of anti-constitutional efforts and activities in order to effectively protect the free-democratic basic order.
The naming of a party as a suspected case is tantamount to an infringement of its right to equal participation in the political competition.
However, the reporting of suspected cases is aimed precisely at influencing those entitled to vote to reflect particularly critically on their voting decisions.
The AfD parliamentary group criticizes the fact that the Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution is allowed to make suspected parties public and fears that the formation of political opinions will be influenced to their disadvantage.
According to her own statements, she feels stigmatized and had therefore filed a complaint against the passage in the Brandenburg Constitutional Protection Act.
"Interventions in Equal Opportunities"
The Constitution Protection Act allows the public to be informed about suspected cases – according to the AfD parliamentary group, this violates the Basic Law and the state constitution.
The state government, however, considers the law to be constitutional.
In June 2020, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD Brandenburg as a suspected right-wing extremist.
The AfD parliamentary group now wants to review the verdict.
"We wanted a different decision," said MP Lena Kotré.
"But we have now also been able to take away from this judgment that the constitutional court very well sees interference with equal opportunities here and that the political participation of our party is restricted."
In 2013, the Federal Administrative Court decided that reporting on a suspected case was not possible without a specific legal basis.
Since a new legal version of 2015, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been able to inform the public about certain efforts and activities, provided there are sufficiently weighty factual indications for this.
The passage on the clues was also added to the Brandenburg Constitutional Protection Act in 2019.
The Cologne Administrative Court decided in March that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution can classify and monitor the AfD as a suspected case.
The party had sued against the assessment of the constitutional protectors.