Weimar (dpa/th) – The FDP politician Thomas Kemmerich has surprisingly withdrawn his constitutional complaint in connection with the loss of his city council mandate in Erfurt. Thuringia’s constitutional court announced that he made the decision on Thursday after the case had been heard. The judges had previously expressed concerns as to whether his complaint might be inadmissible and not sufficiently substantiated, it said after the hearing.
Kemmerich, who is also spokesman for the FDP group in the state parliament and party leader of the Thuringian Liberals, had lost his seat on the city council because his family’s place of residence is Weimar and not Erfurt. He wanted to have it checked as to whether the principle of equal treatment had been violated, because his family residence applies, which is ultimately not the case for single people. Kemmerich had repeatedly stated that his main residence was in Erfurt, where he worked and was active in clubs.
With his constitutional complaint, which has now been withdrawn, Kemmerich had turned against decisions by the Administrative Court in Weimar and the Thuringian Higher Administrative Court. The administrative court had declared his election as a member of the Erfurt City Council in the election in May 2019 invalid – he was not eligible because of the family residence in Weimar, it was said as a reason. The Thuringian Higher Administrative Court had rejected his appeal against this decision.
The Constitutional Court also considered the extent to which its 1997 case law on state electoral law would have to be transferred to local electoral law in the event that family residence and place of work diverged. After discussing the factual and legal situation, Kemmerich made his decision.
