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Judges of the Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court announcing a verdict: more protection for the Karlsruhe court?
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
The Union has reacted favorably to the traffic light coalition's considerations to better protect the Federal Constitutional Court from possible influence in response to the strengthening of the AfD. »We share the concern about party political influence on the judiciary and in particular the Federal Constitutional Court. This important topic should be discussed on a broad basis," said the deputy leader of the Union faction, Andrea Lindholz (CSU), to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
The parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner, told “Welt am Sonntag” that a change to the law on the Federal Constitutional Court should in future require a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority. Fechner referred, among other things, to Poland, where they had seen how quickly a constitutional court could be paralyzed.
The parliamentary managing director of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae, had called for parliamentarism and the constitutional judiciary to be made “more resilient against enemies of democracy”. According to his suggestion, key structures of the Federal Constitutional Court should be anchored in the Basic Law.
The Green Party parliamentary group deputy Konstantin von Notz had spoken out in favor of speaking to the Union at an early stage about better protection of the Federal Constitutional Court from influence. “We must better protect the Federal Constitutional Court, which is so extremely important for our democracy and our constitutional state,” the interior expert for the Green parliamentary group told the newspapers of the Funke media group. It is necessary and right to exchange ideas together about how this could actually happen. “We believe it is imperative to fully include the CDU and CSU in the deliberations right from the start,” said von Notz, pointing out that the Union is the largest opposition faction in the federal government and bears responsibility in numerous federal states. “This gives her a very crucial role in the success of this process.”
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned: "Authoritarian forces want to destroy democracy and the rule of law from within by attacking the independent judiciary and democratic institutions." This is also known from the recent past in neighboring European countries, said the SPD politician. "The fact that this is now being debated in the Bundestag, in academia and in public shows that many have recognized the dangers to our democracy."
hen/dpa/AFP/Reuters