2023-07-05 19:45:05
The Building Energy Act (GEG) must not be passed in the German Bundestag this week as planned. The Federal Constitutional Court prohibited the second and final third reading of the so-called heating law planned for Friday and thus granted an application for an injunction by CDU politician Thomas Heilmann.
This was announced by the Federal Constitutional Court on Wednesday evening. Accordingly, the decision of the second Senate was made by five votes to two.
In their justification, the judges argued with the “considerable compression of the temporal processes” and a not insignificant complexity of the law.
The reasoning of the Karlsruhe judges in the wording:
“Even if the parliamentary majority has a constitutionally guaranteed further scope for shaping the course of the procedure and, in the case of the course of events presented, the deadlines that the rules of procedure of the German Bundestag provide for the second deliberation of a bill (§ 81 Para. 1 Sentence 2 GO-BT), should have been preserved, a more detailed examination, which cannot be afforded in the preliminary legal protection proceedings, is required as to whether the applicant’s participation rights were impaired to a substantial extent without sufficient factual reason and whether the procedural structure chosen by the parliamentary majority represents an abusive acceleration of the legislative process.”
According to the Federal Constitutional Court, Heilmann’s main application in the organ dispute proceedings does not appear to be inadmissible from the outset or obviously unfounded in view of his right to equal participation in parliamentary decision-making under Article 38 of the Basic Law.
The assessment of the consequences led to the result “that the reasons for issuing a temporary injunction prevail”. The interest in avoiding an irreversible violation of participation rights outweighs the intervention in the procedural autonomy of the Bundestag, which merely delays the legislative process.
Federal government might convene special sessions
The last week of meetings before the summer break ends on Friday. As the “Spiegel” reports, due to the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court, there might now be a special session of the Bundestag in the coming week in order to pass the heating law before the break. This would be supported by the fact that the MPs would not have to return from vacation.
It is unclear when a special session of the Federal Council might take place. The next regular meeting is not scheduled until the end of September. However, the Karlsruhe judges stated in their reasoning that the President of the Bundesrat is obliged to convene a special session if the Federal Government demands this.
That is a great success for our parliamentarianism and, in this specific case, also for climate protection.
CDU politician Thomas Heilmann following his success in Karlsruhe
“This is a great success for our parliamentarianism and in this specific case also for climate protection,” Heilmann tweeted on Wednesday evening. He announced a press conference for tomorrow Thursday.
“Of course I was convinced that four days of parliamentary participation might not meet our standards of democracy,” Heilmann told the German Press Agency. “I am pleased that the Federal Constitutional Court has now followed me. That will certainly have consequences for parliamentarism, which I cannot quite overlook so spontaneously.”
CDU leader Friedrich Merz sees the stop on the heating law vote as a “serious defeat for Olaf Scholz’s federal government”. “The federal government’s unspeakable dealings with parliament and the public have now been put under control,” said Merz of the German Press Agency.
“This shows that climate protection cannot be achieved with a crowbar, but only through good and thorough advice in the German Bundestag. Olaf Scholz and his federal government would be well advised to use the judgment from Karlsruhe to pause. Things cannot go on in the German Bundestag as they have been,” Merz continued.
FDP politicians satisfied with the decision
The deputy chairman of the FDP, Wolfgang Kubicki, assessed the decision as a “deserved acknowledgment for the Greens, who put an inexplicable pressure on this process”.
The constitutional judges have made it clear that proper advice is necessary in order to gain the acceptance of the population for serious and far-reaching political measures, the Bundestag Vice President told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “We expect our green coalition partners to show the necessary humility towards this decision.”
The FDP politician Frank Schäffler, who had acted vehemently once morest the heating law in recent weeks, also welcomed the decision from Karlsruhe: “That’s a good thing,” he wrote on Twitter. “Thoroughness comes before speed. It was wrong to be taken in by the Greens here,” said Schäffler.
January 1, 2024 will now hardly be tenable.
Left faction leader Dietmar Bartsch
CSU regional group chief Alexander Dobrindt called on the traffic light coalition to withdraw the heating law following the decision of the constitutional court. “The repeated disregard for Parliament by the traffic light government has now been put up by the Federal Constitutional Court with a stop sign,” he said on Wednesday evening.
“The traffic light should now go into action and finally stamp out this botched law.” The decision was “a serious smack for the arrogance traffic light and its disrespectful treatment of parliamentary rights and the public,” added Dobrindt.
Bartsch speaks of “a slap in the face for Robert Habeck”
The left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch spoke of a “slap in the face for Robert Habeck” and expressed “thanks to the Federal Constitutional Court. “January 1, 2024 will now hardly be tenable,” Bartsch told the Tagesspiegel with a view to the planned entry into force of the law.
The SPD climate politician Robin Mesarosch showed cautious criticism of the Karlsruhe decision. “Karlsruhe sees no urgency with a law that is to come into force on January 1st. But the population finally needs clarity,” Mesarosch told the Tagesspiegel: “We respect both concerns and will quickly pass the heating law following this week of meetings.”
SPD faction deputy Matthias Miersch only sees the Bundestag procedure affected by the Karlsruhe decision, but not the content of the regulation. “The decision must of course be respected. It does not affect the content of the law,” Miersch told the Rheinische Post. “The court expressly points out the possibility of a special session, which must now be discussed.”
Thomas Heilmann’s application for an injunction was successful. © Cornelia Woerster
The former Berlin Senator for Justice Heilmann used his right as a member of the Bundestag last Wednesday to initiate organ dispute proceedings in Karlsruhe and also applied for an injunction once morest the Building Energy Act.
Heilmann had criticized the parliamentary traffic light procedure. After a long dispute and negotiations, the final draft of the so-called heating law was only presented last Friday.
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Consequences of the heat transition The new heating law brings these costs for owners Compromise in the heating dispute House owners, tenants, apartment owners – who has to do what when “Today it came to an end” How the agreement on the heating law came regarding following all
Heilmann saw this as a violation of his rights, because equal participation in parliamentary decision-making was not possible. The opposition, experts and associations were only able to prepare for the committee hearing on Monday over the weekend.
“It no longer has anything to do with parliamentary democracy,” Heilmann said last week. He advocated making the decision on the GEG in a special session during the summer break or in the fall. “There’s still plenty of time to pass the law in September,” says Heilmann, following all the heating law is only supposed to come into force on January 1, 2024.
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