The German Constitutional Court will announce today its decision on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) case, which claims its right to chair parliamentary committees. The ruling concerns two lawsuits filed by the parliamentary group of the far-right party. Firstly, the refusal of the other parliamentary groups to elect AfD candidates to chair three Bundestag committees during the current legislature is being challenged. Secondly, the removal of AfD deputy Stephan Brandner from the chairmanship of the legal affairs committee in November 2019 is being challenged.
The AfD has 77 members in the Bundestag, which has 733 seats in this legislature. The committees are reconstituted in each legislature. Typically, the choice of the group chairing the committee is negotiated within the Council of Elders, a group of over twenty senior lawmakers. If, as after the September 2021 parliamentary elections that brought Chancellor Olaf Scholz to the top job, no agreement is reached, an order of precedence is calculated for the assignment of chairmanships based on the strength of the parliamentary groups. This is how the AfD obtained the chairmanships of the Internal Affairs, Health and Development Cooperation Committees.
However, due to opposition from the other political parties, a vote was required. In all three committees, the AfD candidates did not obtain the necessary majority. As a result, the deputy chairmen are currently at the helm of the three committees. The AfD argues that its rights to equal treatment as a parliamentary group, to effective opposition, and to the fair application of the Rules of Procedure of the German Bundestag have been violated.
