Left party files suit at constitutional court over right to ask questions

The Left Party believes its statutory right to ask questions in the state parliament has been violated and is therefore taking the matter to the Constitutional Court. "We are legally defending ourselves against the Ministry of the Interior wanting to paralyze parliamentary control in an important area," explained Left Party parliamentary group leader Rico Gebhardt.

In the view of the Left Party, Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) is attempting to interfere with the rights of the state parliament in an unconstitutional manner: "But where would we end up if the government were suddenly allowed to decide which questions parliament is allowed to ask?"

Controversy over major inquiry

The bone of contention is a major inquiry by the Left Party on data protection with a total of 1,090 questions. The Left Party wanted to know how the Free State of Bavaria uses registration data and what precautions it takes to protect it. "We will refrain from answering", the Ministry of the Interior announced.

In the view of the state government, the inquiry was "likely to impair the functioning of the state government due to the scope of the questions and the specific date on which it was submitted to the President of the Saxon State Parliament (date of receipt December 11, 2023)", it said.

The Left Party argued that the major interpellation was only very extensive at first glance. It addresses the same manageable set of questions to all relevant offices, authorities and other public bodies. "These addressees are so numerous because the Ministry of the Interior has entrusted them with the regular processing of registration data by means of a registration ordinance." The background to this is also cases of misuse from other federal states, in which police officers, for example, have been found to have made inappropriate queries. Access to registration data is hardly controlled.

Response to questions regulated in the constitution

The left-wing parties have already been successful with the constitutional court in Leipzig on the subject of inquiries. In 2016, the court ruled that the state government had handled MPs' rights improperly. At the time, three MPs had filed a lawsuit due to the Ministry of the Interior's failure to respond to minor inquiries.

Section 51 of the Saxon constitution stipulates that the state government must answer questions from MPs "to the best of its knowledge, promptly and completely". If an answer is refused - for example due to confidentiality obligations or because the rights of third parties are being violated - this must be clearly explained to the MPs.