Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, judge, sits in the administrative court in the hall Photo: picture alliance/dpa
From BZ/afp
The Berlin Senate is not allowed to retire the judge and former AfD member of the Bundestag Birgit Malsack-Winkemann. The capital’s administrative court rejected a corresponding application by the Senate Department for Justice on Thursday.
The 58-year-old is a member of the AfD and sat for the party in the Bundestag from 2017 to 2021. After retiring from parliament, she returned to the Berlin judicial service as a civil judge at the district court.
From this she wanted to retire the Senate administration “in the interest of the administration of justice”. The administration justified this with exclusionary statements by former MPs in parliamentary debates and on social media about refugees.
Birgit Malsack-Winkemann (AfD) speaks in the Bundestag in November 2018 at the beginning of the final deliberations on the 2019 federal budget (archive photo) Photo: Gregor Fischer/dpa
However, the service court determined in its session that Malsack-Winkemann’s speeches in parliament may not be legally used. Article 46 of the Basic Law, according to which MPs may not be prosecuted or held responsible for their statements in the Bundestag, prevents this.
Her social media posts, including on Corona, the US election and refugees, are not sufficient to prove her right-wing extremist sentiments that could justify a transfer.
The Senate Department of Justice and Senator Lena Kreck (left) had accused Malsack-Winkemann of exclusionary and false claims about refugees and applied for her retirement because she was no longer impartial as a judge.