German government, mainstream opposition move to protect highest court against extremist forces

Germany’s governing coalition and the conservative opposition have presented a plan to protect the country’s highest court against possible future manipulation or obstruction by extremist or authoritarian politicians. The justice minister on Tuesday cited experiences in Poland, Hungary and Israel as illustrating the need to bolster the Federal Constitutional Court. The plan put forward by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition and the mainstream conservative Union bloc, the biggest opposition force, calls for the court’s ground rules to be anchored in the Constitution, which they largely weren’t when the post-World War II German Constitution was drawn up 75 years ago. That means a two-thirds parliamentary majority would be required to change them in the future.