11 May 2019

Ranks and Titles

For the European elections, I, like many others, have recently received the postal ballot documents, including the ballot itself, a yard-long piece of recycled paper with altogether 40 list proposals, each with the top ten candidates mentioned by name, status and profession. One of the things that catch the eye is the accumulation of academic ranks and titles in List No. 5, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland: five of the ten candidates there have a doctorate to their name, two are on top of that professors. Such a concentration of academic honorability will certainly not fail to have an impact on the conservative, authority-admiring Bildungsbürgertum targeted by the AfD.

One of the two professors on the AfD list, along with the party leader and economy professor Jörg Meuthen, is a certain “Prof. Dr. Gunnar Beck, Hochschuldozent, Barrister-at-Law für EU-Recht, Neuss (NW)“, number ten on the list and therefore not unlikely to win a seat in the next European Parliament. His name might be familiar to some of you, as it was to a reader of Verfassungsblog who pointed him out to me: He is one of us, a legal scholar who teaches EU law and legal theory at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. In his application speech at the AfD party conference last November, he introduced himself as a “professor and specialist lawyer for EU law in London” and as the author of a study on the European Court of Justice, “that is, the court that regularly declares Unrecht to be EU law”. (To appreciate the full brazenness of this statement, one needs to know that Unrecht is a lot worse than injustice, it’s the opposite of law, an Unrechtsstaat was what Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were the leaders of.)

Alright, then. Professor Beck, is it? Let’s see. Where did he get his professorship from? At SOAS he is listed as “Reader in Law”. This is the rank beneath professor which at many British universities is reserved exclusively for chair holders. A reader in the UK is a distinguished rank, roughly what an associate or extraordinary professor would be elsewhere, but equivalence is not what matters under German higher education law. The right to call yourself lawfully a professor in Germany depends on whether you have actually been appointed professor or not. Careless handling of these regulations is not recommended: The unauthorised use of an academic degree or an official title is a criminal offence in Germany according to § 132a of the Penal Code.

I asked Dr. Beck on what basis he lets himself be listed as a professor, and in response he sent me a link to a “legal tip” on the website anwalt.de as well as the advice to read up on British academic ranks and titles and their German equivalents and to consult Wikipedia: “As far as I remember, Wikipedia correctly sums up my professional activity, with a correct indication of the professional titles.”

I followed his advice and looked him up at Wikipedia. His entry “Gunnar Beck” includes the information, apparently added in summer of 2018, that he was appointed professor in 2016 by the University of Sussex. This information is part of both the English and the German version of his Wikipedia page. So I called the University of Sussex. Surprise: According to a spokesperson, Dr. Beck was in fact never employed at any time and was never appointed professor by the University of Sussex. I’ve asked Beck to comment on Thursday evening, but, as of this writing, haven’t heard back from him.

It’s about an election

I can’t completely rule out that Dr. Beck may be in some other way entitled to call himself a professor and for some reason keeps the basis of this right secret from me and Wikipedia and the world. To be honest, I personally couldn’t care less if he wants to be addressed in his private and professional life as professor, archbishop or His Imperial Majesty. It’s just that Dr. Beck, who as “professor” of EU law takes it upon himself to call the European Court of Justice a court of Unrecht, is running for MEP. And with some prospect of success, too. He is running as “Prof. Dr. Gunnar Beck”. That is written in black and white on my ballot paper and on millions of others in Germany. If the candidate Dr. Beck should turn out to be in fact not a professor, then the ballot paper would be factually incorrect. And in view of high regard of the AfD electorate for academic ranks and titles, it seems to me that it cannot entirely be ruled out that this incorrectness would actually have an impact on the composition of the next European Parliament.

What now? In any case, it’s too late to print new ballot papers as tens of thousands of postal ballots have already been cast probably. But after the election, every voter can contest its validity within two months. According to German electoral law (§§ 26 EuWG, 1 WahlPrG) the competent authority is the Bundestag, and after that one can appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe.

For the election to be cancelled, any minor flaw won’t do, obviously. It needs to be shown that the election was flawed in a way that actually or potentially affected the composition of the Parliament elected. If, for example, the AfD gains ten seats, then a lot would depend on how narrowly candidate #10 on the list (in this scenario, ironically, Gunnar Beck himself) has won his seat. If it’s in fact a matter of a few dozen or hundred votes, then it seems to me that the potential relevance of the potential error for the composition of the EP can’t be so easily dismissed. In the strict sense of the law, the consequence would be that the European elections would be invalid throughout Germany and would have to be repeated. The EP and the entire EU would be paralyzed for weeks or months. And that in times like these.

If this were to happen and if it were indeed the case that a scholar of EU law, radicalised in the euro crisis and turned a rabid eurosceptic and Brexiteer, takes fierce revenge on the object of his study in this way – that would truly be material for a goddamn Wagner opera. Let’s hope that it does not come to that.

Remembering Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde

On Verfassungsblog, a great highlight of this week was our online symposium in memory of the great, recently deceased Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde, organized by our associate editors KATHARINA MANGOLD and BENJAMIN RUSTEBERG. FRIEDER GÜNTHER illuminates Böckenförde’s position within the German Staatsrechtslehrerschaft, co-organizer BENJAMIN RUSTEBERG his theory of fundamental rights, CHRISTOPH ENDERS his fight for the inviolability of human dignity, and UTE SACKSOFSKY his view of freedom of religion. JOACHIM WIELAND examines Böckenförde’s view of the welfare state principle, GERTRUDE LÜBBE-WOLFF his theory of democracy and legitimation chains, MATHIAS HONG his relationship to Carl Schmitt, co-organizer KATHARINA MANGOLD the famous “Böckenförde-Diktum“, MIRIAM KÜNKLER and TINE STEIN Böckenförde’s view of Europe and DIETER GOSEWINKEL Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde as a historian. I am exceedingly proud and can’t thank all participants enough that this amazing collection of scholarship has appeared on Verfassungsblog.

GRÁINNE DE BÚRCA and JOHN MORIJN’s open letter of solidarity for Wojciech Sadurski has gathered more than 600 signatures last week, and counting. Sadurski, well known not only to readers of Verfassungsblog, is the target of legal proceedings initiated by the Polish ruling party PiS and its media minions in return for his sharp criticism of the decay of the rule of law and its proponents and profiteers in Poland.

In the German state of Saxony a few days ago, a bunch of Nazis marched through the small town of Plauen in a way that could and probably was intended to be equalled to SA marches of the 1930s, drums and flags and diarrhea-colored shirts included. Why didn’t the police intervene? CHRISTOPH ENDERS analyses the situation under Saxon assembly law and comes to the conclusion that their reasons for restraint don’t hold much water.

In Germany, Home Secretary Seehofer’s federal police rejects refugees at the border by deporting them on the basis of bilateral agreements, especially with Greece. ANNA LÜBBE takes a recent decision of the Administrative Court of Munich as an opportunity to ask about the effects on the Dublin regulations and the right to legal protection.

In Latvia, the Supreme Court has treated the (satirical) appeal to annex the country to the Russian Federation as a punishable attack on Latvian independence. According to ALEKSEJS DIMITROVS, the consequence could be that the call for a European federal state might be considered a crime, as well.

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Council of Europe, CAROLINE VON GALL deals with the existential crisis into which the Council of Europe has been plunged by its still-member Russia and calls for an end of “appeasement” towards Russia.

In Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has won the presidential elections. ALINA CHERVIATSOVA reports on what happens now and by what partly unconstitutional means parliament tries to make his life difficult.

In Germany, the AfD has demonstrated an astonishing degree of procedural creativity with its latest attempt to get one of their own on the speaker’s bench of the Bundestag. ANNA VON NOTZ and I come to the conclusion that the parliament administration rightly fended off this advance as inadmissible.

The dispute between AfD and the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution about its designation as a “case of scrutiny” (Prüffall) enters the next round: KLAUS FERDINAND GÄRDITZ finds that the office did not violate an injunction of the Administrative Court of Cologne by the way it used this term.

Elsewhere

EMRE TURKUT describes the Kafkaesque fate of the imprisoned Turkish constitutional judge Alparslan Aslan on the occasion of the ECtHR judgement in his case.

FRANCESCO PALERMO asks about the future role of fundamental rights in the EU.

LEONID SIROTA is flabbergasted about the way a law obliging gas stations to display anti-carbon-tax stickers came into being in rightwing-populist-governed Canadian state of Ontario.

PIERRE DE VOS is sceptical about the prospect of Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC effectively fighting corruption after its victory in the South African elections.

KAMEL AJJI takes France’s President Macron and his call for more “mechanisms of accountability” at its word and demands to start with the president’s own freedom of expression.

MARLOTTE VAN DAEL describes what can happen to you in the Netherlands if you have the misfortune to be a stateless Palestinian.

ANDREAS GUTMANN examines the implementation of the opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on LGBT rights in Latin America on the occasion of a case before the Constitutional Court of Ecuador.

So much for this week. All the best, and take care

Max Steinbeis


SUGGESTED CITATION  Steinbeis, Maximilian: Ranks and Titles, VerfBlog, 2019/5/11, https://verfassungsblog.de/ranks-and-titles/, DOI: 10.17176/20190517-143930-0.

40 Comments

  1. Hans Reinwatz Sat 11 May 2019 at 17:52 - Reply

    Der (inzwischen gelöschte) Halbsatz “wurde 2016 zum Professor an der Universität Sussex ernannt” wurde im August 2018 von einer IP-Adresse aus Neuss in den Wikipedia-Artikel eingetragen (siehe https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gunnar_Beck&diff=prev&oldid=179823461 und eine Abfrage der IP bei https://whoer.net/de/checkwhois) – dem Ort, in dem Herr Beck laut Stimmzettel auch gemeldet ist. Interessant.

    • schorsch Sat 11 May 2019 at 19:24 - Reply

      „As far as I remember“

      Die Seite wirkt ohnehin eher autobiografisch. Sie ist jedenfalls so gut betreut, wie sonst nur Altphilologen ihre Bukoliker und Trekkies ihre Sternenflotten pflegen.

  2. Citizen Sun 12 May 2019 at 08:35 - Reply

    By the way, Erdogan had been elected as President of Turkey first in 2014. A university degree has been a requirement in order to run as a candidate according to the Turkish constitution. There is a controversy regarding the authenticity of his degree.: One of the related news articles is following one.:
    “Hat Erdogan sein Diplom gefälscht?” (Der Spiegel online, 17.06.2016)

  3. Citizen Sun 12 May 2019 at 08:57 - Reply

    The academic title “Dr.” of members of the Bundestag (German Parliament) had been revoked because of plagiarism (deliberately false claim regarding intellectıal property) regarding their dissertations and therefore they resigned.
    Concerning Mr Beck: If true, that he has indeed no Professorship (false claim regarding being the holder of an academic title), he probably will have also to resign if/after being elected.

  4. Citizen Sun 12 May 2019 at 13:55 - Reply

    It might be better to stop the practice, that ballots contain academic titles of candidates. Or the “electroral commission” should check in advance, if candidates are indeed holders of the academic titles, which they had stated.

  5. Rick Sun 12 May 2019 at 16:41 - Reply

    professor is no academic title. It is a job.
    You are a Dr. and have a habilitation and then you get the job “professor”. People think professor is some title, because TV always shows professor as typicial scientist, but in fact you first need your titles and then can become a professor, when some university wants to employ you as a professor.
    And as he did teaching (according to his university page) someone may have confused this, because usually professors do the teaching, but often others (even PhD students) do part of the teaching as well.

    I do not like the AfD, but always think of hanlons razor: Do not assume malice, when it might just be incompetence.

  6. Holger Mon 13 May 2019 at 13:36 - Reply

    Professor is both a job and a title in Germany, which are usually but not always connected (there are “außerplanmäßige Professoren” who hold the title but not the position of Professor, and in many cases professors can keep their title when they change their job, e.g. hospital directors are often called “Prof. Dr.”). For better or worse, titles like Prof. and Dr. are considered part of your name in Germany, and it’s forbidden to use a title you don’t have.

    But the electoral commission should indeed have checked Beck’s claim to the title before printing it on the ballot. According to the Bundeswahlleiter’s tweets on the subject of nicknames, they generally go by the name given in your passport.

  7. Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 05:35 - Reply

    As far as I know, in the elections to European Parliament one can only vote for a party, but not directly for a candidate, though candidates are listed on the ballots. So it might be irrelevant (or maybe just marginal relevant) with regard to the results of the elections to the EP, if Mr Beck indeed isn’t a professor.Nonetheless, this matter should be investigated.: Is he indeed a professor? Does he have the right to call himself “Prof.” also in Germany, if he became a professor in the UK? In case, that his professorship indeed isn’t true, he should resign, if/ after winning a seat of the EP.

  8. Heinrich Niklaus Tue 14 May 2019 at 10:51 - Reply

    „Reader bezeichnet im Vereinigten Königreich und einigen Universitäten von Ländern des Commonwealth of Nations eine akademische Berufsbezeichnung für führendes akademisches Personal mit einer ausgezeichneten internationalen Reputation in Forschung und Lehre.“ Wiki

    „Die begrenzte Vergleichbarkeit der Rangsysteme zwischen englischsprachigen Ländern erschwert zuweilen die Einordnung einzelner Rangstufen. Die britische Interpretation des Ranges kann als Professor ohne Lehrstuhl betrachtet werden, analog zu der Unterteilung zwischen professor extraordinarius und professor ordinarius an einigen europäischen Universitäten.“ Wiki

    • Maximilian Steinbeis Tue 14 May 2019 at 11:08 - Reply

      yup. Wiki ist keine Rechtsquelle. § 69 Hochschulgesetz NRW schon. Da steht halt drin, dass eine Übersetzung in äquivalente Hochschulgrade bzw. -tätigkeitsbezeichnungen ausgeschlossen ist. Muss man nicht gut finden, gilt aber.

  9. Stefan Pannor Tue 14 May 2019 at 11:49 - Reply

    “I do not like the AfD, but always think of hanlons razor: Do not assume malice, when it might just be incompetence.”

    It’s neither malice nor incompetence, it’s campaigning. Especially the AfD is obsessed with titles, with the notion of being an academic party. They try to be down-to-earth and elitist at the same time, and they try to substitute arguments with titles.

    That said, I dont consider Beck to be incompetent. It is not incompetence, if you claim to hold a position you never held.

  10. L.S. Tue 14 May 2019 at 12:24 - Reply

    Merkwürdig ist auch, dass Beck in GB anscheinend nirgendwo den Professorentitel führt. Auf der Homepage der Universität nicht, aber auch auf der Webseite der Kanzlei wird er nur mit dem Dr. geführt. https://www.1ec.co.uk/gunner-beck

    Wenn er doch also Professor ist, wie er selbst behauptet, warum führt er dort die Bezeichnung nicht, sondern nur hier in D während des Wahlkampfes? Soweit ich das sehe, ist es nämlich auch in GB üblich, den Professorentitel in der freien Wirtschaft zu führen. Wenn man ihn besitzt.

    Ansonsten: Ist er nicht zudem rechtswidrig, dass er sich im Wahlkampf als “Fachanwalt für EU-Recht” bezeichnet? Immerhin ist Fachanwalt eine erlaubnispflichtige Bezeichnung und von einem “Fachanwalt für EU-Recht” habe ich in D noch nie gehört.Er tritt zwar nicht im juristischen/beruflichen Verkehr mit dem Titel auf, aber eben bei diversen AfD-Veranstaltungen.

  11. Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 12:35 - Reply

    In Germany it is allowed, that in the identity card and/ or passport the title “Dr.” are/ is stated, as far as I know. The “electoral commission” should check, if the identity card and/ or passport contain/s the title “Dr.”. If so, the title should be printed on the ballots. A German person can also be the holder of the title “Dr.”, though it isn’t stated in the identity card/ passport, as far as I know.: Either s/he doesn’t want this or didn’t ask for a new identity card/ passport after becoming holder of the title “Dr.”.
    “Prof.” can’t be stated in the identity card/ passport in Germany, as far as I know.

  12. Robert Steinberger Tue 14 May 2019 at 13:47 - Reply

    I am a professor in England (Birmingham) and I can confirm that a Reader is NOT a professor. A Reader could be considered what we had in Germany before the W-system as C1 – that is a senior scientist poised to be a professor some time. It does not quite translate to the W-system we now have in Germany. W1 is (as I understand it) a junior professor (assistant professor in many countries), W2 an associate professor (ohne Lehrstuhl), and W3 a full professor. Since many of my colleagues are professors without a leading position I can confirm that a Reader is far from being a professor.
    What is more, as far as I am aware from my contract with university, you are normally only allowed to carry the attribute ‘professor’ when representing your university. In all other contexts you are not allowed to use it. I am not sure, but I believe this to be the case all over the world.

  13. Jakub Jaraczewski Tue 14 May 2019 at 14:12 - Reply

    In Poland, professor too is both a job title and a formal rank.

    Once you attain the rank of “doktor habilitowany” (PhD + habilitation) a university may employ you as a “professor” and you can title yourself “Prof. XXX dr hab.”, where XXX is your current affiliation. Such persons are frequently referred to, rather disrespectfully, as “backyard professors”.

    But the full professor title requires the President of Poland (yes, that’s how far we go) to award you with the title, shake your hands and have a photo with you. This has become rather awkward for academics working in the fields of constitutional law and human rights these days, as it entails a photo op with President Duda.

    Then again, it gives you an opportunity to tell him in face what you think about him dismantling democracy and the rule of law in Poland, so there’s that.

    Only after you endure that you are a “full” professor and your moniker “backyard prof” turns into coveted “Belweder Professor” (Belweder is one of residence of the President).

  14. Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 14:25 - Reply

    Artikel:
    AfD-Kandidat soll Professorentitel zu Unrecht führen
    14. Mai 2019
    Webseite: ZEIT ONLINE
    “Ein Sprecher der AfD sagte ZEIT ONLINE, Beck habe den Professorentitel aufgrund seiner Tätigkeit an der SOAS Universität London bei der Partei als Berufsbezeichnung angegeben und nicht als akademischen Titel.” (Zitat)

  15. Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 14:35 - Reply

    Anerkennung ausländischer Hochschulgrade
    Brexit gegen bri­ti­sches Renommee
    von Maximilian von Möllendorff
    04.05.2017
    Webseite: Legal Tribune Online

  16. Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 14:37 - Reply

    Following article is concerning Dr. Alice Weidel, who is also a member of the AfD.:

    Bundestagswahl 2017
    Alice Weidel ohne Doktortitel auf Stimmzettel
    15.09.2017
    Webseite: Nordkurier

  17. Hans Reinwatz Tue 14 May 2019 at 15:45 - Reply

    If we assume that Beck inserted the now-removed “professor at the University of Bristol” bit into his Wikipedia article (see my comment above) – then he did not translate his reader position at SOAS into a professorship (which would be wrong) but instead claimed to be a professor at a completely different university that has never heard from him (which is a lot worse).

    • Hans Reinwatz Tue 14 May 2019 at 15:45 - Reply

      Sussex, not Bristol. Sorry.

      • Maximilian Steinbeis Tue 14 May 2019 at 15:48 - Reply

        True. I’ve heard that there had been talks between Beck and UoSussex about hiring him at some point, but that didn’t work out, for what reasons I don’t know.

        • Hans Reinwatz Tue 14 May 2019 at 16:08 - Reply

          Okay, this might explain a bit of that. Another interesting thing though: On https://www.1ec.co.uk/gunner-beck, Dr Beck lists his “Notable cases”. He includes the BVerfG decisions on the Treaty of Lisboa and the ESM, although he is not listed in the Rubrum as a representative of any of the plaintiffs. Nor did he work for one of the plaintiffs, e.g. as some form of assistant counsel, as far as I can tell from his CV.

  18. Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 15:57 - Reply

    The “professorship controversy” is now known (prior to the elections to the EP) to voters. Several well-known news websites published articles on this matter, e.g. Zeit online. So this matter probably isn’t a problem with regard to the electoral results.: There might be no longer any benefit for the AfD regarding Mr Beck being stated as “Prof.” on the ballots, if he isn’t indeed a professor. This matter might even be a disadvantage for the AfD! Persons, who had the intention to vote for the AfD, might change their mind after reading the news articles.

  19. Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 17:25 - Reply

    Ein Professor, den keiner kennt
    14.05.2019
    Webseite: Tagesschau

    AfD-Politiker weist Kritik wegen Professorentitels zurück
    14.05.2019
    Webseite: t-online
    “Nachricht der Deutschen Presse-Agentur (dpa)”

    AfD-Politiker Gunnar Beck: “Ich habe juristisch einwandfrei und inhaltlich richtig gehandelt”
    14.05.2019
    Webseite: Presseportall

    • Citizen Tue 14 May 2019 at 20:35 - Reply

      Weitere Artikel:

      Der unbekannte Professor
      14.05.2019
      Webseite: taz

      AfD streicht nach Vorwürfen Professorentitel von Kandidat Beck
      14.05.2019
      Webseite: ORF.at

    • Citizen Wed 15 May 2019 at 07:47 - Reply

      Weder Pro­fessor noch “Fach­an­walt für Euro­pa­recht”
      von Pia Lorenz und Annelie Kaufmannund Dr. Markus Sehl
      14.05.2019
      Webseite: Legal Tribune Online

    • Citizen Wed 15 May 2019 at 22:35 - Reply

      Europa-Wahlzettel wird wegen Gunnar Beck nicht geändert
      15.05.2019
      Webseite: RP online

  20. Prof Dr. R. G. Asch Tue 14 May 2019 at 22:08 - Reply

    well, well well, the problem is that Professor can be taken to be a distinct title in the strict legal sense (in that sense Beck is not a professor) or it could- when you talk about non-German universities – just denote somebody teaching at a university and holding a rank similar to that of a German professor, the functional equivalent. Wikipedia takes “reader” to be the equivalent of “Extraordinarius” which today would translate into W2-professor, and that sounds more or less right “In the traditional hierarchy of British and other Commonwealth universities, reader (and principal lecturer in the new universities[1]) are academic ranks above senior lecturer and below professor, recognising a distinguished record of original research. Reader is similar to a professor without a chair, similar to the distinction between professor extraordinarius and professor ordinarius at some European universities, professor and chaired professor in Hong Kong and “professor name” (or associate professor) and chaired professor in Ireland. Readers and professors in the UK would correspond to full professors in the US.[2]”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reader_(academic_rank)

  21. Citizen Wed 15 May 2019 at 23:35 - Reply

    “For the election to be cancelled, any minor flaw won’t do, obviously.
    It needs to be shown that the election was flawed in a way that actually or potentially affected the composition of the Parliament elected.”

    I guess, that in the above statement the word “cancel” means “to annul / declare as invalid”.

    A different definition of “cancel” is as follows.: to decide or announce, that sth. arranged/ planned in advance won’t take place (e.g. a flight).

    One can cancel sth. either in advance or retroactively.

    Isn’t it possible to cancel the election in advance/ postpone the election and print new ballots because of this controversy?

  22. Citizen Fri 17 May 2019 at 07:47 - Reply

    SOAS Students’ Union
    Statement against Gunnar Beck
    Published: 14 May 2019
    “We second everything that colleagues* in the Law Department have said in the following statement circulated earlier today:”
    Website: soasunion.org

    The topic isn’t the “professorship controversy”, but Mr Beck’s controversial run for a seat as a candidate of the AfD.:
    This apparently harms his standing in the British academia. Especially for this reason he might want to win a seat.

    • Citizen Fri 17 May 2019 at 11:25 - Reply

      Related news article:

      Academics appalled by colleague standing for far-right AfD
      17.05.2019
      Website: thetimes.co.uk

      Besides an article on the “professorship controversy” had been published on the same website.

    • Citizen Fri 17 May 2019 at 22:27 - Reply

      Students and academics protest against lecturer standing for far-right AfD in European elections
      17.05.2019
      Website: independent.co.uk

  23. Citizen Fri 17 May 2019 at 07:57 - Reply

    “But after the election, every voter can contest its validity within two months.”

    Curiously, the EP”s new term will start/ new MEPs will meet for the EP’s constituent session already on 2nd July! So it is possible for voters to contest the validity even after 2nd July.

  24. Citizen Fri 17 May 2019 at 08:25 - Reply

    “In the strict sense of the law, the consequence would be that the European elections would be invalid throughout Germany and would have to be repeated.”

    This controversy isn’t an acceptable cause to lead to such a consequence, as far as I can judge. The reasons, which I stated in previous comments are as follows.: First of all, one doesn’t vote directly for a candidate, but for a party. Besides this controversy became public prior to the elections.
    If there will be such a consequence, it might cause sth. positive.: There is a controversy with regard to the participation of the UK in the EP elections.If the EP’s constituent session can’t take place as planned on 2. July, but later because of a repeat of the EP elections in Germany, maybe British politicians therefore won’t become members of the EP. The UK is allowed to stay in the EU until 31. October 2019. As long as the UK is a member of the EU, there are British members in the EP. (If the UK leaves the EU before 2. July, there will be no new British members in the EP.)

    PS: A blog post regarding UK’s controversial participation was published on Verfassungsblog on 16.04.2019.

    • Citizen Fri 17 May 2019 at 14:25 - Reply

      The UK has 73 seats in the EP. When the new British MEPs will have to depart, 27 politicians from some of the other EU countries will become new members of the EP.

  25. Citizen Fri 17 May 2019 at 15:25 - Reply

    “In the strict sense of the law, the consequence would be that the European elections would be invalid throughout. The EP and the entire EU would be paralyzed for weeks or months.”

    The EP’s new members will meet for the constituent session of the EP on 2nd July, but curiously the new Commission is due to take office on 1st November, as far as I know. The EP needs to approve the new Commission President (absolute majority).

  26. Citizen Mon 27 May 2019 at 15:35 - Reply

    Ermittlungen gegen AfD-Europakandidat
    24.05.2019
    Webseite: Deutschlandfunk

  27. Paola Gini Sun 2 Jun 2019 at 18:56 - Reply

    No one speak about beck other credintials on his SOAS website

    https://www.soas.ac.uk/staff/staff30638.php

    Are you really sure he has MA from Oxford? check that out. you will be surprise or maybe not. another scandale?

Leave A Comment Cancel reply

WRITE A COMMENT

1. We welcome your comments but you do so as our guest. Please note that we will exercise our property rights to make sure that Verfassungsblog remains a safe and attractive place for everyone. Your comment will not appear immediately but will be moderated by us. Just as with posts, we make a choice. That means not all submitted comments will be published.

2. We expect comments to be matter-of-fact, on-topic and free of sarcasm, innuendo and ad personam arguments.

3. Racist, sexist and otherwise discriminatory comments will not be published.

4. Comments under pseudonym are allowed but a valid email address is obligatory. The use of more than one pseudonym is not allowed.