German electoral practice for minority party taken to court

[Harold F. Schiffman]

German electoral practice for minority party taken to court

Brussels/Bruxelles 1/10/2005 , by Brigitte Alfter

On February 20th, the German province of Schleswig-Holstein will hold its
election for the parliament of the province. Opinion polls show a tight
run between the red-green coalition currently in government, and the
conservative-liberal opposition. The Danish-Frisian minority party, SSW,
according to the polls, can expect four percent of the votes  and as after
previous elections it will have a decisive role to play in a possible hung
parliament.

However, the party now faces a possible legal obstacle. A group of
citizens in 2000 raised a complaint about electoral practice in the
province which grants minority parties an exemption from the usual minimum
of five percent of the votes in order to obtain a seat in the parliament.
In November the Federal Constitutional Court dismissed the question for
procedural reasons. Now, the regional court has announced that it will
raise the case again in order to test the content of the question.

SSW is confident that the minority privilege will not be changed, even if
the case is tried again at the Constitutional Court. We are shocked that
the OVG [the regional court] enters the election campaign with a press
release. On the background of the statement of the Constitutional Court,
we are, however, very confident that this second request by the OVG will
be rejected, says Anke Spoorendonk, leader of the current SSW group in the
provincial parliament.

In its decision of November, the Constitutional Court did comment on the
content of the complaint, pointing out the principal character of the
question, as it deals with minority rights at a time where minorities may
have to move outside of traditional minority regions for work.

Helmut Henkel, a former professor of veterinarian medicine, is, according
to the Danish daily Flensborg Avis, among the complainants. When they
first raised the case, he asked whether the privileges of the minority
party could be limited to the northern part of Schleswig-Holstein, the
area where the Danish and the Frisian minority traditionally live.

In an interview given to Flensborg Avis, when the case was first raised in
2000, Henkel claims that the exception in favour of minority parties is an
abuse of privileges and unconstitutional.

The basic exception was made following the bilateral German-Danish
Bonn-Copenhagen declarations of 1955 in order to safeguard political
representation for the minority. Equally the German minority in Denmark
enjoys certain rights guaranteed in the declarations.

However, in 1999 the electoral law of the province was revised. Previously
only voters in the northern part of the province were able to vote for
SSW, after the revision all citizens in the province, including areas
beyond the traditionally bilingual regions, are able to vote SSW.

In the November 17th decision the Constitutional Court questions whether
the complainants are right in their assumption that no members of the
Danish minority live in the southern part of the province, particularly
considering the high unemployment in the northern part.

Also the aim of the privilege is touched upon. For example, the
Constitutional Court asks whether Germans who are not members of the
minorities, but wish to support them, should be able to do so by voting
for SSW.

A formal complaint in the renewed case has not been filed yet, and no date
has yet been set for further proceedings. (Eurolang 2005)

http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4866