The justice ministers are angry, if they put it a little more diplomatically.

They had hoped that the federal government would give them funding for further posts for judges and public prosecutors in the federal states, but did not get them.

On Thursday afternoon at the conclusion of the Ministers of Justice Conference in Hohenschwangau, Bavaria, three ministers stand in front of the beautiful backdrop of Lake Alpsee.

The atmosphere was good, we worked intensively, says Georg Eisenreich, the Bavarian minister from the CSU and chairman of the conference of justice ministers.

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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But his disappointment with the appearance of Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) is noticeable.

Buschmann had not traveled to the south of Bavaria because of the budget week in Berlin, but was connected.

Eisenreich reports that he asked intensively how the federal government's plans for a new edition of the pact for the rule of law were going, and that he was hoping for clear answers.

The states agree here that the federal government made the promise that action should now follow.

Disappointed in Bushman

Peter Biesenbach, the Minister of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia from the CDU, is clearer.

One is "rather dissatisfied" with what Buschmann told them.

"We had hoped he would be more specific and bring some numbers with him," said Biesenbach.

"That didn't happen." And Anna Gallina, the Hamburg Senator for Justice of the Greens, said that one had "briefly" had the opportunity to talk to Buschmann and was "not yet completely satisfied".

She describes the pact for the rule of law as a “success story”.

"We must not allow success to be jeopardized."

In the Berlin coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed to consolidate the previous pact for the rule of law and to expand it with a digital pact for the judiciary.

The federal states therefore expect a financial commitment from the federal government.

In 2019, the federal and state governments concluded the first pact for the rule of law.

According to the agreement at the time, the federal states had to create a total of 2,000 jobs for judges and public prosecutors, of which a total of 220 million euros came from the federal government.

During the coalition negotiations, there was now talk of 500 million euros a year, report members of the Bundestag from the Greens and SPD, after all, the digitization of the judiciary in particular is expensive.

However, the Federal Ministry of Justice refers to constitutional difficulties, since the judiciary is a matter for the federal states and the federal government should therefore not simply finance the bodies.

Originally, the plan was to support the judiciary only with modernizations such as electronic legal transactions and the preparation of courtrooms for online hearings.

Continuation of the pact for the rule of law demanded

Biesenbach reminded on Thursday that the federal government is constantly giving the states new tasks, for example by changing the laws on hate crime and child abuse.

It is therefore necessary for the federal government to also contribute financially to the increase in the number of courts.

Otherwise, the judiciary would not be able to carry out the tasks quickly and with the required intensity.

In their joint decision, the Ministers of Justice have now written that they consider it "expressly necessary" that the Federal Ministry of Justice "will promptly enter into concrete negotiations with the federal states on a new pact for the rule of law", which also continues the financial support of the federal states.

The justice ministers discussed a total of 39 applications.

An important point was the fight against hate and hate speech.

The justice ministers of the federal states are demanding penalties for operators of large social networks if they do not delete hate posts promptly.

The federal government should examine the extent to which the criminal law can be changed.