Constitutional Court - AfD fails with lawsuit against non-voting in oversight committee
The AfD has once again failed before the Bavarian Constitutional Court with a lawsuit against their non-election to the parliamentary Control Committee in the Bavarian State Parliament. The Court dismissed the lawsuit as partly inadmissible and in general unfounded, as President of the Court Hans-Joachim Heßler stated in the judgment explanation. The AfD does not have "occupation rights" in this case, but only proposal rights. However, it is indeed permissible to make the actual composition of the Committee dependent on a free majority vote by the Parliament.
The decision was anticipated with a certain tension, as the question was politically quite sensitive: For the parliamentary Control Committee controls the Bavarian Constitutional Protection - and it observes the AfD in Bavaria as a whole.
Concretely, it concerned the previous legislative period. The AfD had repeatedly proposed candidates for the Committee, but all of them failed to find a majority in the Parliament. The same has happened for all AfD candidates for the Control Committee in the current legislative period.
The AfD had argued before the Constitutional Court that their rights to formal equality and effective opposition work were being infringed upon. The Committee should be mirrored like the Parliament itself. However, the representatives of the Parliament argued that access to the Committee should be regulated through an election. And this was indeed a secret ballot, an MP is free to vote.
First lawsuit was unsuccessful
In the summer of 2021, the Constitutional Court had already rejected the AfD's first lawsuit regarding their non-election to the Committee due to inadmissibility. After that, the faction filed a new lawsuit - which was now decided.
Also lawsuit against budget proposal rejected
In the morning, the AfD had already failed with a lawsuit against the budget proposal 2022 before the Bavarian Constitutional Court. It concerned a resolution recommendation of the Ministry of Economics to the Office of the Budget Committee in the Landtag, in which AfD amendment proposals were also taken into account.
The AfD had argued that this violated the Parliament's rules of procedure and the neutrality requirement and had affected their participation rights as MPs and faction in the budget-making process. However, the Court dismissed the lawsuit as a whole as inadmissible.
The decision to dismiss the AfD's second lawsuit against their non-election to the parliamentary Control Committee was upheld by the Bavarian Constitutional Court, reaffirming the judgment from the summer of 2021. The Court further rejected the AfD's lawsuit against the budget proposal 2022, arguing that the Parliament's rules of procedure and neutrality requirement were not violated. The AfD contended that their participation rights as MPs and faction were affected, but the Court deemed the lawsuit as a whole inadmissible. The Bavarian Constitutional Court, located in Munich, has thus maintained its control over the Constitution of Germany, including the Bavarian State Parliament and its associated Committees.
