A German court has dismissed a complaint by a right-wing candidate for mayor of a German town who had been banned from running by a panel made up of his party’s political opponents – effectively condoning the exclusion.
Joachim Paul, the candidate for mayor of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in Ludwigshafen (Rhineland-Palatinate), had filed an urgent application with the Administrative Court in Neustadt an der Weinstraße to protest his exclusion from the mayoral election on September 21 and demand that he be admitted to stand for mayor.
On August 5, the election committee of Ludwigshafen, an industrial city of 170,000 people on the Rhine, had voted to ban Paul from standing for mayor over doubts concerning his “loyalty to the German Constitution”.
The election committee comprised seven members: Current mayor Jutta Steinruck (a former Social Democratic Party, SPD, MP) and six members from other parties, including the Conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) but not the AfD itself.
On August 18, the administrative court dismissed Paul’s application, saying it was not permissible. Paul could only demand a review of the election after it had already taken place. A provisional admission as a candidate was not possible, according to the court.
The court argued that electoral stability needed to be preserved. Therefore, interim legal protection in the run-up to a local election was only permissible in exceptional cases.
In its statement the court effectively sided with the judgment of the election committee: “No circumstances have been substantiated, nor are there any other indications, that the exclusion of the applicant from the election for mayor was based on an obvious error and that the rejection of the election proposal was manifestly unlawful.
“The election committee had grounds for doubting that the applicant would guarantee his commitment to the free democratic basic order according to the constitution at all times.”
Paul himself, the statement continued, was mentioned in the annual report of the Constitutional protection agency of the State of Rhineland and his office was a “networking location” for right-wingers, according to the State interior ministry.
To investigate thoroughly the allegations against the AfD politician, an extensive investigation would be necessary, the court said. This would not be possible, though, so close to the mayoral election.
The state of Rhineland-Palatinate is governed by a coalition of SPD, The Greens and the FDP.
Interior minister Michael Elbling (SPD) recently made headlines after he said his administration would no longer hire AfD members as civil servants.
Paul can now contest the administrative court’s decision within two weeks at a higher court.
The AfD politician told newspaper Welt that he was considering launching an appeal. Paul added: “It seems to me that this was planned well in advance. It is simply a matter of eliminating the candidate of the most promising party, the strongest party in Ludwigshafen, shortly before the state elections.”
He also dismissed allegations about his lack of constitutional loyalty, saying: “Today, anything that is not radical left-wing is apparently considered right-wing extremist.”
