Contested Ludwigshafen Election: Rejected AfD Nominee Unsuccessful in Constitutional Challenges - Ludwigshafen's Vote Outcome: AfD Candidate Unsuccessful with Constitutional Challenges
In the upcoming mayoral election in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, scheduled for this Sunday, the AfD candidate, Joachim Paul, has been denied the right to run due to doubts about his loyalty to the constitution.
Initially, the Ludwigshafen mayoral election committee refused Paul's candidacy, citing concerns about his commitment to upholding the constitutional order. However, the Higher Administrative Court in Koblenz upheld the decision, finding no obvious flaws and no imminent irreparable legal disadvantage.
The court's ruling stated that challenges to individual decisions related to the Ludwigshafen mayoral election procedure can only be made retrospectively through election review procedures. This means that any legal challenges to the decision must wait until after the election.
The AfD had announced that it would support Paul in submitting constitutional complaints to both the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe and the Rhineland-Palatinate Constitutional Court in Koblenz. However, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that Paul did not adequately engage with previous court decisions and failed to analyze the facts on which these decisions were based.
Furthermore, the court pointed out that the Basic Law article cited by the candidate applies to parliamentary elections, not mayoral elections.
It is worth noting that Paul, who sits in the state parliament in Mainz, has been assessed by the federal and state constitutional protection authorities as having at least parts that are considered right-wing extremist. His emergency applications to administrative courts in Rhineland-Palatinate have been rejected multiple times.
The Higher Administrative Court in Koblenz also stated that there are sufficient indications that Paul is not always willing to stand up for the free and democratic basic order.
Despite these challenges, a new mayor will be elected in Ludwigshafen am Rhein on Sunday. Approximately 122,000 eligible voters of the city will cast their votes in the municipal election held on September 21, 2025. The conduct of the election can only be guaranteed if the legal review of individual decisions related to the procedure is limited during the election process, according to the court in Koblenz.
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