German MPs back reforms to protect independence of top court

Reforms designed to guarantee the independence of Germany's Constitutional Court passed the lower house of parliament with broad cross-party support on Thursday.

The reforms will now head to the upper chamber of Germany's parliament, the Bundesrat, for approval. The matter could be taken up as early as Friday, and is expected to be easily approved there, too.

The measures would enshrine key aspects of how the Constitutional Court functions in Germany's constitution, known as the Basic Law, including the court size of 16 judges, 12-year terms for judges, term limits and the mandatory retirement age of 68 years.

Supporters have described the move as a way to insulate the top court from possible political interference in the future, since changes to the Basic Law require two-thirds majorities in parliament.

In parliament, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser argued that the reforms are necessary in order to avoid leaving an opening for the enemies of democracy.

She pointed to the ultimate failure of German democracy during the Weimar Republic of the 1920s and 1930s, which she said came in part because pro-democracy politicians "failed to take the necessary steps to protect and defend their democracy, because they did not make their institutions robust against attacks."

Rules for the Constitutional Court are currently laid out in German law, which can be amended with a simple majority in both chambers of parliament.

The changes also create a new mechanism for confirming judges to the court through parliament, aimed at making it harder for a minority party holding more than a third of seats to effectively veto nominees.

Lawmakers from Chancellor Olaf Scholz's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens were joined by the centre-right CDU/CSU opposition bloc as well as the free-market liberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the hard-left The Left in backing the changes.

The final vote was 600 lawmakers in favour and 69 opposed.

Lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the insurgent populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) opposed the change.

Politicians from several other parties suggested the reforms were aimed at insulating the court against the AfD, whom many mainstream German politicians accuse of being a threat to the democratic order.

Katja Keul, a Green who serves as a senior official at the German Foreign Office, warned that Germany's "judiciary is under fire from the anti-democrats."

Without a strong Constitutional Court, a "dictatorship of the majority" threatens, Keul said.

"The Bundestag resolution is evidence of democratic cooperation - I am very happy about that," German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a post on X after the vote.

The German Association of Judges (DRB) also welcomed the reform and suggested that Germany's 16 states should also review their state constitutions and judicial laws for possible weaknesses.

"The independence of the courts must be protected as effectively as possible as a bulwark of democracy so that extremists and enemies of the constitution have no chance," said DRB Federal Managing Director Sven Rebehn.