Observation of the party Die Linke by the protection of the constitution

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Building of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on the barracks area Am Treptower Park in Berlin
The Left calls for the abolition of the protection of the constitution, in
2013 at a demonstration on the NSU trial in Munich

The Left Party has been under observation by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and some state agencies for the protection of the constitution since it was founded in 2007 . The Federal Ministry of the Interior announced in March 2014 that the party's Bundestag members would no longer be observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Since 2012 there has only been talk of "extremist structures in the Die Linke" party.

Observation of the party

In the federal government

In the report for the protection of the constitution for the year 2006, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution saw indications of anti-constitutional efforts by the then Left Party.PDS and immediately stated: “It remains to be seen how the 'Linkspartei.PDS' will perform, especially after the intended merger with the non-extremist party WASG will develop. ”Since an observation has to be continuously measured against the principle of proportionality, the merger of the Left Party and the WASG that has now taken place was taken as an opportunity to review the observation practice up to now.

A continuation of the observation was ordered in May 2008 by the Federal Minister of the Interior, Wolfgang Schäuble . The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution came to the conclusion in 2009 that “on the one hand, in its public appearance, the party [relies] on being perceived as a reform-oriented, new left force. On the other hand, there are still numerous indicators of left-wing extremist activities within the party. "The Federal Office identified signs of left-wing extremist activities," in particular the inconsistent attitude towards left-wing extremist violence and the full acceptance of openly extremist alliances in its ranks, "which the party financially would be supported. The Federal Ministry of the Interior particularly counts the Cuba Sí working group , the Communist Platform , the Marxist Forum , the Socialist Left and the Gera Dialogue among the “open extremist alliances of the party”. Schäuble's views in this regard were also represented by his successor, Hans-Peter Friedrich ( CSU ).

In the countries

The interior ministers of the federal states of Hesse, Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria have Die Linke at least partially monitored by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In January 2008, the Saarland Ministry of the Interior announced as the first ministry responsible for the protection of the constitution in West Germany that it would stop its observation. The Saarland constitutional protection president Helmut Albert justified this with the fact that there are no more indications of an unconstitutional activity of the left. From the point of view of his authority, it is a party “left-wing social democratic style”.

The Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Heribert Rech (CDU) wanted to continue to hold on to an observation: "I doubt whether Die Linke is even based on our free democratic basic order ." What was said at the unification congress of the WASG and the Left Party was from his point of view "Terrifying". His successor in office Reinhold Gall (SPD) declared in February 2013 in response to a small request from the opposition that the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution would now only observe “extremist associations, currents and sub-structures within the state association of the party“ DIE LINKE. ””.

Lower Saxony's interior minister, Uwe Schünemann (CDU), ordered increased monitoring of the party in his country in July 2008, as it was doing "common cause with violent autonomists and communists". After the change of government in Lower Saxony (2013) , the SPD and the Greens declared in their coalition agreement under the point “Restart of the protection of the constitution”: “The red-green coalition will (...) end the tactically motivated observation of the entire party“ Die Linke ”... (...). "

However, the state authorities for the protection of the constitution are currently still in disagreement as to whether Die Linke should be monitored. In the East German states, the state offices refrain from general observation of the left, as there are no signs of anti-constitutional behavior on the part of the party as a whole. Only the Communist Platform is also being observed in three countries in East Germany. Some state authorities in the old states want to wait for a joint decision by all state offices and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Observation of individual members

Bodo Ramelow (2011), today Prime Minister of Thuringia
Petra Pau (2009), Acting Vice President of the Bundestag

In addition, individual members of the party were observed separately by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2007. In addition, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution keeps "factual files" on all members of the parliamentary group with information from publicly accessible sources. The file contains, among other things, biographical data on the MPs, their functions within the party, “membership in extremist alliances of the party” and “contacts with extremist groups”.

After the party was founded, the deputy parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Bodo Ramelow , announced an organ charge before the Federal Constitutional Court , which was filed on June 20, 2007. On January 17, 2008, the Cologne Administrative Court found the illegality of the personal observation of MP Ramelow in another proceeding. In the ruling in question, however, the court emphasized that this was not a fundamental ruling as to whether the protection of the Constitution was allowed to collect information about members of the state parliament or the Bundestag in general, as well as the members of the relevant parliamentary groups on the left in particular. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, however, declared the observation of Ramelow by generally accessible sources to be proportionate and appropriate on July 21, 2010. The reason given was his activity as a leading functionary of the party Die Linke, in which the lower court also saw evidence of anti-constitutional efforts. The dangers of observing members of parliament are reduced by the merely open observation and justified by the particular importance of protecting the free democratic basic order . Ramelow and the left-wing parliamentary group in the German Bundestag lodged a constitutional complaint against the judgment and announced that they would go to the European courts if it failed.

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled on October 9, 2013 that the observation of Ramelow was unconstitutional. The decision of the Federal Administrative Court of July 21, 2010 was also overturned.

At the beginning of 2012, a report by the news magazine Der Spiegel announced that 27 members of the Bundestag from the left-wing parliamentary group, and thus more than a third of the members of the left-wing parliamentary group, had been observed separately by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Among the Observed almost the entire leadership of was Parliamentary Group The: faction leader Gregor Gysi and his first deputy Wagenknecht , the members of the Group Bureau Bartsch and Korte , the parliamentary CEO grandson man , the national chairman Lötzsch and their deputy Wawzyniak , to the Bundestag Vice President Pau . The extent of the observation is controversial and has been criticized by politicians from the SPD, FDP and the Greens. In 2013, too, according to Spiegel information, 25 of the 57 members of the Bundestag left were under surveillance by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In November 2017, the newly elected member of the 19th Bundestag, Gökay Akbulut , had been under observation by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for several years because of alleged contacts with Kurdish associations that are close to the Kurdish Workers' Party ( PKK) .

Cessation of observation of members of the Bundestag

In March 2014, the Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière , informed the parliamentary group leader Gregor Gysi that members of the Bundestag of the Left Party would no longer be observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and that members of the Bundestag would be "generally exempted from surveillance by the domestic secret service in the future". After the observation was stopped, the Cologne Administrative Court determined in an acknowledgment judgment in September 2014 that the personnel file [Gysi] had to be destroyed.

In November 2015, the Bavarian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution stopped observing members of the Bavarian Parliament of the Left Party . The Bavarian state association and its members are classified by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Bavaria as " left-wing extremist ". For example, when applying for the public service or as part of an external lecture at a Bavarian school, explicit questions are asked about membership in the party. The responsible minister of state, Joachim Herrmann , commented in 2013 after the end of the observation of members of the Bundestag of the party Die Linke by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution:

“I see no reason to change our Bavarian practice. (...). I consider the observation of the party Die Linke by the constitution protection to be correct and necessary. Sections of the Left Party are clearly anti-constitutional and shape the party in its entire orientation. "

- Joachim Herrmann

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2012 . S. 208 ( PDF ( memento of November 9, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on April 24, 2020]).
  2. ↑ Federal Ministry of the Interior (ed.): Verfassungsschutzbericht 2006 . ISSN  0177-0357 , p. 172 ( PDF ( Memento of August 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) [accessed on July 11, 2008]).
  3. ↑ Interview with the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Heinz Fromm, in the FAZ on January 27, 2008.
  4. ^ Constitutional Protection Report 2009 ( Memento of July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 4.3 MB), p. 173.
  5. ^ Preliminary report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for 2008 ( Memento of June 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), p. 148 (PDF); see. also report on the protection of the constitution by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for the year 2009, preliminary version 2010 ( Memento of July 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), pp. 151–157 (PDF; 4.3 MB).
  6. ↑ This must not be repeated. Interview with Federal Minister of the Interior Hans-Peter Friedrich. In Parliament. No. 29–31, 2012, p. 9.
  7. ^ The Left - No Endangerment for the Constitution. In: tagesschau.de. January 16, 2008, archived from the original on February 1, 2009 ; Retrieved March 16, 2008 .
  8. ↑ Saarland stops observation of the left . sueddeutsche.de . January 16, 2008. Retrieved December 22, 2010.
  9. ↑ a b The New Left unsettles constitutional protectors. In: netzeitung.de. June 18, 2007, archived from the original on January 22, 2009 ; Retrieved March 16, 2008 .
  10. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from February 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Lower Saxony's interior minister allows the Left Party to be monitored more closely. In: spiegel.de. July 16, 2008, accessed July 16, 2008 .
  12. ↑ RENEWAL AND COHESION. SUSTAINABLE POLICY FOR LOWER SAXONY. In: www.spdnds.de. Archived from the original on February 28, 2013 ; accessed on May 29, 2015 .
  13. ↑ The Office for the Protection of the Constitution contains information on all members of the left-wing parliamentary group . Bundestag.de. Archived from the original on September 4, 2010. Retrieved on December 22, 2010.
  14. ↑ Miriam Hollstein: Linke files a lawsuit against the federal government. In: Welt Online . June 21, 2007, accessed March 16, 2008 .
  15. ↑ VG Köln, judgment of December 13, 2007 , Az. 20 K 3077/06 and 20 K 6242/03, full text.
  16. ^ Observation of Left Party politicians is prohibited. In: Welt Online. January 17, 2008, accessed March 16, 2008 .
  17. ↑ BVerwG, judgment of July 21, 2010 ( Memento of the original of November 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Az. 6 C 22.09, full text. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bverwg.de
  18. ↑ Press release of the BVerwG ( Memento of the original dated May 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated July 21, 2010. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bverwg.de
  19. ↑ So stay in the country and defend yourself daily , Bodo Ramelow in conversation with Jacob Jung, October 25, 2011.
  20. ↑ Press release of the BVerfG of October 9, 2013
  21. ↑ Secret Service: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution observed 27 left-wing MPs on Spiegel-Online on January 22, 2012
  22. ↑ tagesschau.de ( Memento from February 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ Verfassungsschutz: Secret Service observes 25 left-wing MPs on Spiegel-Online from June 2, 2013.
  24. ↑ The Office for the Protection of the Constitution observes new members of the Bundestag from the left. In: Focus Online. November 24, 2017. Retrieved November 24, 2017 .
  25. ^ The protection of the constitution reacts to judgment, left-wing MPs without observation ( memento from October 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau.de from March 14, 2014
  26. ↑ Gysi files must be deleted ( Memento from September 5, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) - Tagesschau.de - website, September 5, 2014. Retrieved on September 5, 2014.
  27. ↑ The Office for the Protection of the Constitution stops observing left-wing MPs , Süddeutsche Zeitung, March 14, 2014
  28. ↑ Gregor Gysi: In Bavaria, too, observation of left-wing MPs by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution finally stopped. ( Memento of the original from February 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Message on the website of the party Die Linke Bayern from November 18, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / die-linke-bayern.de
  29. ↑ a b Document of the Government of Upper Bavaria regarding "Instruction on the duty of loyalty to the constitution in the public service" . Retrieved February 11, 2016. p. 4.
  30. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung of July 9, 2013: Have you ever been to the Left Party? Author Sebastien Gierke. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  31. ↑ Focus Online: “Verfassungsfeinde” - Bavaria wants to keep the Left under observation January 24, 2013, accessed on February 11, 2016.