AfD Forces Rerun of Saarbrücken City Council Election After Legal Victory
A German regional court ruled that Saarbrücken's municipal elections must be rerun after authorities wrongfully excluded the Alternative for Germany party from the June 2024 ballot.
The Higher Administrative Court in Saarbrücken declared the June 9, 2024 city council election invalid and ordered the state administrative office to set a new election date, as Junge Freiheit reports. The ruling came after a member of the conservative AfD party challenged the decision to bar his party from participating in the vote.
The state administrative office had justified excluding the AfD on grounds that the party had submitted two candidate lists, claiming this constituted an illegal double candidacy. However, the plaintiff argued that the first list had been withdrawn in time, making the submission of a second list entirely legitimate.
Court Sides With AfD on Democratic Principles
The Higher Administrative Court agreed with the AfD’s reasoning. A court spokesman confirmed that the candidates from the first list had been validly recalled through a decision by the party’s membership assembly on February 18, 2024.
The judges further based their ruling on the principle of party autonomy enshrined in Article 21 of Germany’s Basic Law. The court interpreted this constitutional provision to mean that parties must be able to replace candidate lists with alternative proposals in order to ensure current democratic legitimacy.
Second Victory for AfD in Regional Election Disputes
The AfD member’s lawsuit had initially been dismissed by the Saarland Administrative Court at first instance, but his appeal succeeded at the higher court level. The senate did not allow for a further revision, though a non-admission appeal to the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig remains theoretically possible.
This marks the second time the AfD has prevailed in such election disputes in Saarland. In June of last year, the state’s administrative court had also declared a June 2024 regional assembly election invalid after the AfD successfully challenged its exclusion from that ballot as well.
The decision represents a significant legal victory for the party in a state where election authorities have repeatedly moved to block its participation in local and regional contests.
With information from Junge Freiheit
