A scandal has been criticized, as it is reported that members of the Federal Police are threatened with disciplinary measures, including dismissal, if they are members of the AfD or actively engage in politics for the party. This is according to an internal memo of the Federal Police, first reported by the Junge Freiheit (JF) on Wednesday.
The basis for this is the new regulations of the disciplinary law, which came into effect on April 1, 2024, and aim to more severely punish extremist tendencies in the public service and the Bundeswehr. To this end, the authorities’ powers over employees have been significantly expanded. According to a press release from the Federal Ministry of the Interior, it is stated:
“In the future, all disciplinary measures, including the removal from the service, will be pronounced by the competent authority through a disciplinary decree. The lengthy administrative court disciplinary proceedings will be abolished. (..) Furthermore, it is now the case that a final conviction for incitement to hatred, which results in a prison sentence of at least six months, will lead to the loss of the right to hold a public office.”
Disciplinary measures can now be issued through administrative acts, which previously required judicial proceedings to be dispensed with. The new regulation does not leave any doubt as to who it is directed at: an internal memo of the Federal Police explicitly warns employees that if they become members of the AfD or are actively engaged in politics for the party, they will have to reckon with “disciplinary consequences, up to and including dismissal”.
The internal memo, which was published on the Federal Police’s intranet on January 7, carries the title: “Candidacy for a securely right-extremist party? No good idea as a federal employee!”. The Thuringian and Saxon State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution had previously classified the AfD as “securely right-extremist”, which apparently serves as the legal basis for the drastic measures announced in the memo. The internal opinions that formed the basis of this classification, however, remain under wraps.
The classification is therefore both juridically and politically questionable, especially since the President of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, is said to have suppressed opinions that exonerated the AfD, and even threatened his own employees, according to media reports. Kramer is criticized for misusing his position and waging a personal crusade against the AfD.
The incident in the Federal Police is a “real scandal”, according to the lawyer Volker Boehme-Neßler in an X-Post. He argued:
“Of course, the Basic Law guarantees that employees can be members of a party that is not banned. One cannot therefore dismiss an employee simply because of membership in the AfD! This applies equally to membership in the SPD, CDU, and other parties that are not banned..”
The AfD has announced that it will “pursue all legal means against this unconstitutional attempt to ‘cleanse’ the Federal Police and other state institutions of people who are not liked by the government”. Party chairwoman Alice Weidel speaks of an “unconstitutional attack on the political freedom of opinion and the independence of our security authorities”. The plans of Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser and Federal Police President Dieter Romann are “alarming”, according to the Chancellor candidate in a statement.
“A grave abuse of office by the Minister of the Interior and her subordinate Federal Police President. Politically motivated purges in institutions are only known from dictatorships and are a danger to democracy”, Weidel said.
Only the “culpable violation of the constitutional duty of loyalty” constitutes a disciplinary offense that can be punished, according to the politician. This attack “on our liberal-democratic basic order” will not be tolerated, Weidel announced.