German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. File photoBERLIN, June 15The German constitutional court found that the former Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel, during her tenure, violated the rights of the Alternative for Germany party, commenting on the scandal involving the party in the federal state of Thuringia. In the summer of 2020, Alternative for Germany filed complaints against the then Chancellor Angela Merkel. The AfD's claims related to Merkel's statements at a press conference on February 6, 2020 during her state visit to South Africa. Then Merkel said that the results of the election of the prime minister of Thuringia (elected by the vote of the regional parliament) should be reviewed, when the head of the region was elected with the participation of AfD factions — these elections caused a scandal in Germany. According to the AfD, Merkel violated the party's rights to equality of chances by making a comment on a domestic political topic during a state visit.Spiegel reported on Zelensky's «caustic attack» against MerkelThe court on Wednesday agreed in its verdict with the claims of the AfD. «By a decision of today, the Second Chamber (of the Court) decided that Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, with her statement on the election of the Prime Minister of Thuringia, made during a press conference with the President of South Africa on February 6, 2020 in Pretoria, and the subsequent publication on the website of the Federal the chancellor and the government violated the right of the Alternative for Germany to equal chances to correlate with point 1 of paragraph 1 of article 21 of the Basic Law,» the court decision says. The court considered that its statements, in particular, that the elections in Thuringia became «a bad day for democracy», Merkel, while in office, «negatively qualified» the plaintiffs and «one-sidedly influenced the competition of political parties.» The court noted that such a violation of the equal rights of parties to «form political will» is not justified by the «mandate of the Federal Chancellor to preserve the stability and international prestige of Germany.» The decision was taken by votes of 5 to 3 judges. Judge Astrid Wallrabenstein gave a separate opinion, which is included in the judgment. Wallrabenstein did not agree that the Chancellor's statements should be evaluated for their party-political neutrality and that the government's press service is limited in the right to publish on party-political topics only in pre-election time.
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