In the opinion of constitutional law professor Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, the concept of a “firewall” should not violate the constitutional rights of political parties. She told the Tagesspiegel that fundamentally, this remains a purely political matter.
However, Brosius-Gersdorf argued that the situation transforms into a legal issue if the firewall implementation results in the curtailment of constitutional rights. She criticized the current situation, citing the right of parliamentary groups in the Bundestag to be represented proportionally in its committees, mirroring their presence in the plenary session. As an example, she noted that current representatives from both Die Linke and the AfD are excluded from the Parliamentary Control Committee responsible for overseeing intelligence services, due to a firewall policy enacted by the Union party. Addressing Die Linke specifically, the jurist stated that this exclusion is unconstitutional. Concerning the AfD, she added that it is being observed by the domestic intelligence agency, and the control over that agency falls under the jurisdiction of the Parliamentary Control Committee.
Brosius-Gersdorf recommended that any potential procedure to ban the AfD be examined with extreme thoroughness. She stressed that the necessary prerequisites are very high. “I consider simply attempting it to be dangerous,” she warned, adding that “the failure of a party ban application would be fatal.”
