Rise of far right AfD in politics engenders sweeping constitutional reforms in Germany

 

Admin I Thursday, Sept.19, 2024

 

BERLIN – Fearing the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and its possibility of taking over government, German political leaders who have enjoyed liberal constitution are moving for sweeping reforms to reinforce the independence of the country’s Federal Constitutional Court.

Kathrin Wahlmann, justice minister in the north-western state of Lower Saxony, on Wednesday said Germany’s states could become “an additional bulwark against authoritarian forces.”

Wahlmann presented a plan that would require approval from Germany’s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, on any measure reforming the Karlsruhe-based Constitutional Court.

The Bundesrat represents the interests of the 16 federal states.

Wahlmann said the move would “create a second strong line of defence in the fight against the enemies of our democracy,” she argued.

The latest proposal comes weeks after Germany’s main political parties agreed to enshrine protections for the court in Germany’s constitution, the Basic Law.

At present, reforms to the court are possible with a simple majority in the Bundestag, or lower house.

Under the plan by Germany’s mainstream parties, there would be 12-year term limits for judges and a retirement of age of 68 in the Basic Law.

Germany’s Basic Law can only be amended by a two-thirds majority in both chambers of parliament.

Wahlmann’s new proposal would bolster the government’s plans, she said.

She highlighted the recent case of neighbouring Poland, where the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party was able to push through highly controversial judicial reforms during its two terms in office, as proof for why strong constitutional protections are necessary.

Germany’s main political parties are increasingly wary about the AfD, which earlier this month became the first far-right party to win a state election in the country since World War II.

Meanwhile, a  few days before the election to the regional parliament in the state of Brandenburg surrounding Berlin, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) remained in first place in a new survey.

The AfD would achieve 28% of the vote ahead of the previously dominant centre-left Social Democratic Party’s (SPD) 25%, according to a survey by the opinion research institute INSA on behalf of the local newspapers Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, Märkische Oderzeitung and Lausitzer Rundschau.

This means that state premier and top SPD candidate Dietmar Woidke, who has been in office for 11 years, would fail his main election goal of making the SPD the strongest force in the parliament that sits in the state capital Potsdam, just outside Berlin.

Woidke had announced that he would no longer take on government responsibility in the event of an AfD election victory.
On Sunday, around 2.1 million Brandenburg voters are called to the polls.

According to the survey published on Tuesday, the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) would achieve 16%, ahead of the newcomer Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) with 14% of the vote.

The Greens, the hard-left Die Linke (The Left), and the local Brandenburg United Civic Movements (BVB)/Free Voters alliance all polled under the 5% threshold and are therefore at risk of not re-entering parliament.
INSA polled 1,000 eligible voters in Brandenburg online from September 9 to 16, with a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

In general, election surveys are always fraught with uncertainties. Among other things, the decline in party affiliations and increasingly last-minute voting decisions make it difficult for opinion research institutes to weigh the collected data. Basically, surveys only reflect the opinion at the time of the survey and are not predictions of the election outcome.

The AfD was also ahead in previous surveys. In the ZDF-Politbarometer Extra poll, the AfD came in at 29% ahead of the SPD with 26%. In the ARD-Deutschlandtrend poll, the Social Democrats were just behind the AfD with 26% to 27%.