Baden-Württemberg: Gentges and the judges: bitter dispute over top posts

Is this an attack on the independence of the judiciary? Or a completely normal process? The Minister of Justice is suing the judiciary because they do not support her proposal for a top post.

Baden-Württemberg: Gentges and the judges: bitter dispute over top posts

Is this an attack on the independence of the judiciary? Or a completely normal process? The Minister of Justice is suing the judiciary because they do not support her proposal for a top post.

Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - It is a very rare dispute between the executive and the judiciary: Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Justice Marion Gentges (CDU) is suing the judiciary's veto against her proposal for the top post at the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court. Now the administrative court in Stuttgart has to decide. Today the court is hearing the lawsuit and the ministry's urgent appeal. It is quite possible that the judges will make their judgment in the afternoon, said a spokesman.

What exactly is it about? Gentges does not want to accept that the Presidential Council of the Higher Regional Court rejected their candidate for the top post and made their own proposal. The CDU politician is of the opinion that the jury is exceeding its powers. She points out that the Presidential Council may only check whether there are errors when making a personnel decision.

The process surrounding the OLG candidacy and the successor to Cornelia Horz is a rarity in recent judicial history. The previous Higher Regional Court President retired in May. Gentges had proposed Beate Linkenheil, department head in the ministry, for the post. The Presidential Council spoke out in favor of Andreas Singer, the President of the Stuttgart Regional Court.

The opposition in the state parliament from the SPD and FDP accused the minister of a frontal attack on the judiciary. The German Association of Judges criticized that Gentges had canceled the decades-long consensus on the tasks and powers of the Presidential Council.