++ Info meeting at noon, 18.09.24: AfD loses lawsuit ++

Members of the 25 permanent Bundestag committees are free to elect the committee chairmen. According to the Basic Law, the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag has no right to elect a candidate that it has chosen, ruled the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. The judge also ruled that the ousting of the former chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, AfD MP Stephan Brandner, was not arbitrary in view of a series of controversial statements he made.

Praise for the verdict from the SPD – criticism from the AfD

The SPD reacted with relief to the ruling: “We are pleased about the clear decision of the Federal Constitutional Court,” said Johannes Fechner, parliamentary manager of the SPD parliamentary group. “The committee chairs are too important to be filled by unqualified people.”
The AfD sees things differently. According to the defeated AfD politician Stephan Brandner, the verdict is “a black day for parliamentarism”. The rights of the opposition would be massively weakened as a result. The only aim was to prevent the AfD.

Shared rooms in university cities are becoming increasingly expensive

Shortly before the start of the winter semester, the average rent for shared rooms in university cities is 489 euros per month. That is around 17 euros more than a year ago, according to an analysis by the Moses Mendelssohn Institute in cooperation with the “wg-gesucht” placement platform.

The most expensive is Munich. A room in a shared apartment there costs around 790 euros a month. This is followed by Frankfurt with 680 euros, Berlin with 650 euros, Hamburg with 620 euros and Cologne with 600 euros.