As the second strongest force in the Bundestag, the AfD parliamentary group is demanding the second largest meeting room. The Federal Constitutional Court has now decided against it.
dpa | In the dispute over the second largest meeting room in the Bundestag, the AfD parliamentary group failed before the Federal Constitutional Court. The court rejected an application in the organ dispute proceedingswith which the AfD against the allocation of the hall to the SPD parliamentary group. The AfD faction had no right to the hall, decided the Second Senate in Karlsruhe.
The parliamentary group’s view that “the Otto Wels Hall, as the second largest hall, corresponds to a silver medal to which it is entitled as second place in the federal election, is wrong,” explained the Senate. The Basic Law does not guarantee success bonuses, but rather opportunities to participate in the decision-making process in the state organs. (Az. 2 BvE 14/25)
After the federal election in February 2025, the AfD, which had grown into the second-largest faction with currently 151 members, laid claim to the second-largest meeting room in the Reichstag building. The SPD has used this so far, but since the election it has only had 120 members in the Bundestag. The SPD had the hall after the ex-SPD leader Otto Wels named.
After a long dispute, the Council of Elders of the Bundestag, in which the factions are represented according to their strength in the Bundestag, finally decided against the AfD with a majority vote in May. The SPD was able to keep its hall and the AfD was assigned the former meeting room of the FDP parliamentary group, which is significantly narrower.
The Federal Constitutional Court decided that the Council of Elders was justified in assuming that it could decide on the allocation of halls by majority vote and that there was no access procedure based on faction strength. The council’s decision did not violate the AfD’s right to equal treatment. He could assume that the allocated hall was suitable for the size of the AfD parliamentary group.
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