The Federal Constitutional Court has ruled in favour of the AfD in its dispute with Horst Seehofer. In his article on JuWissBlog, Keno Potthast analyses this ruling with regard to the neutrality requirement.
Read the full article here
Excerpt
With the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of 09 June 2020, the debate about the right of members of the government to make statements enters another round. In an interview with the German Press Agency in September 2018, Horst Seehofer, Federal Minister of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs (BMI), described the AfD, among others, as "subversive of the state". The AfD defended itself against the publication of the interview on the BMI's website by taking it to the Federal Constitutional Court - and was proven right. The BVerfG ruled that the publication of the interview on the ministry's website was a violation of the right to equal opportunities for political parties under Article 21 (1) sentence 1 of the Basic Law. The judgement thus fits into the previous line of jurisprudence of the court, but leaves known weaknesses of the neutrality requirement untouched. An assessment.
Potthast, K. C. (2020): AfD gegen Seehofer: Neues Urteil - alte Störgefühle [AfD v. Seehofer: New Judgment - Old Disruptive Feelings]. In: JuWissBlog No. 80/2020 v. 11.06.2020, online: https://www.juwiss.de/80-2020/
