BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – In view of the rise of extreme parties, the leadership of the Union parliamentary group has spoken out in favor of a calm discussion about changes to the legal rules for the Federal Constitutional Court. “I simply warn against quick shots of any kind,” said the parliamentary managing director of the CDU/CSU members of the Bundestag, Thorsten Frei (CDU), on Tuesday in Berlin. One can trust in the strength of the constitutional body, the Federal Constitutional Court. “I believe that there is no reason for a hysterical debate in this context.”
The parliamentary managing director of the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner, told “Welt am Sonntag” that a change to the law on the Federal Constitutional Court should in future require a two-thirds majority instead of a simple majority. Fechner referred, among other things, to Poland, where they had seen how quickly a constitutional court could be paralyzed.
Frei was now warning that everything that was enshrined in the Basic Law was firmly established with a two-thirds majority. He currently does not see the danger that a political force in the Bundestag and certainly not in the Bundesrat could get more than 50 percent. On the other hand, there is a much greater danger that a force could obtain a blocking minority of a third of the votes. You have to consider that.
“There is a lot to be said for toughening the court. But you have to be careful that it doesn’t harden,” warned Frei. You shouldn’t want the good and cause the opposite. For example, the rules for electing constitutional judges in the Bundestag and Bundesrat are not something that needs to be anchored in the Basic Law with a two-thirds majority. The judges at the Federal Constitutional Court are elected half by the Bundestag and half by the Bundesrat with a two-thirds majority. The process also ensures that balanced candidates are elected who do not represent extreme minority positions./bk/DP/stw