The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig has ruled on the complaint filed by Bodo Ramelow - MdL - member of parliament against the collection of personal information about him by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
The plaintiff is a member of the party DIE LINKE and was a member of the 16th German Bundestag. In the meantime, he has become a member of the Thuringian Landtag, where he chairs the parliamentary group DIE LINKE. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution collects information on the plaintiff's activities in the party DIE LINKE as well as on his activities as a member of parliament, but without his voting behaviour and his statements in parliament as well as in the committees. The plaintiff was mainly successful with his action in the two lower instances. The Higher Administrative Court held that there were factual indications of anti-constitutional aspirations on the part of DIE LINKE, but that the collection of personal information on the plaintiff was disproportionate.
On appeal by the defendant BfV, the Federal Administrative Court dismissed the action. In doing so, it was bound by the findings of the Higher Administrative Court for reasons of revision law, according to which there were actual indications of anti-constitutional aspirations of the party DIE LINKE. The plaintiff's activities in the parties PDS, Linkspartei. PDS and DIE LINKE also justifies the collection of information about him by the BfV by way of open observation.
Observation of the plaintiff is not ruled out because the Higher Administrative Court found that he did not pursue any anti-constitutional aspirations in his own person. The provision of § 4.1 sentence 1 lit. c BVerfSchG (Federal Protection of the Constitution Act) is also applicable to members of a Land parliament or of the German Bundestag; principles of parliamentary law do not conflict with this. This also applies to the principle of the free mandate under Article 38 (1) of the Basic Law.
The observation of the plaintiff was proportionate. In particular, it proved to be appropriate. It is true that the intelligence observation of members of parliament poses considerable risks with regard to their independence and to the participation of the parties concerned in the formation of the political will and thus for the process of democratic decision-making as a whole. However, the weight of this burden for the plaintiff was reduced here by the fact that the BfV limited itself to open observation and excluded the core of the plaintiff's parliamentary activity. In contrast, the legality of the observation is supported by the special weight of the protection of the free democratic basic order and the fact that the plaintiff is a leading functionary of the party DIE LINKE.
Ruling of the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) of 21 July 2010 - Ref: 6 C 22.09 -
Source: Press release of the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG)
Goldberg Attorneys at Law
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M.(Information Law)
Specialist lawyer for information technology law (IT law)
E-mail: info@goldberg.de
