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Justice Minister Buschmann
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
The SPD parliamentary group accuses Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) of taking too lax action against child marriages.
In March 2023, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the relevant law partially unconstitutional.
According to the Social Democrats, Buschmann now wants marriages between people under 16 to be decided in each individual case as to whether they should be annulled or continue.
The so-called repeal solution is “a completely wrong signal,” criticizes Dirk Wiese, deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group.
The Social Democrats demand that marriages in which one spouse is under 16 years old must remain void.
Rights of minors, such as maintenance, should be regulated separately by the legislature.
With its proposed solution, the SPD sees itself in line with the Karlsruhe ruling.
"In contrast to Buschmann's proposal, this would outlaw child marriages with a strong political signal," said Wiese.
The Constitutional Court had asked the federal government to reform the law by the end of June 2024 at the latest.
In their decision, the judges complained that there is currently no possibility of having a marriage that is valid under German law after reaching the age of majority.
The regulation criticized by the Constitutional Court stipulates that a marriage concluded abroad is automatically invalid if one of the partners was not yet 16 years old.
The regulation was part of the “Law to Combat Child Marriages,” which the black-red federal government introduced in 2017 against the backdrop of increasing numbers of refugees.
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