The regulations governing the reimbursement of expenses by the state for unreliable staff members of Members of the State Parliament and members of parliamentary groups in Rhineland-Palatinate do not contravene the State Constitution. This was the ruling of the Constitutional Court (VerfGH) in Koblenz (Ref.: 31/25 of 28 August 2026). Consequently, the AfD parliamentary group in the Mainz State Parliament’s application for a constitutional review against an amendment to the Members of the State Parliament Act and the Parliamentary Groups Act was unsuccessful.

Under the reform adopted in July 2025, the President of the Landtag is to subject the staff of Members of the Landtag and parliamentary groups to a reliability check. Should the check reveal that they are not trustworthy, the expenses of those concerned will no longer be reimbursed. In the opinion of the Constitutional Court, these provisions do not infringe upon either the free mandate of Members of Parliament or the autonomy of parliamentary groups. Whilst there is an encroachment on the freedom of Members of Parliament to select their staff, this is justified in order to protect the free democratic basic order. Nor is the privilege of political parties affected, as the aim is not simply to penalise mere party membership. Rather, what matters is the individual conduct of the person concerned.

„It is true that the Constitutional Court takes the free democratic basic order as its decisive benchmark. This also applies to senior administrative officials: what matters is not party affiliation or political views, but an individual’s commitment to the constitution,“ states Rechtsanwalt Dr Dominik Lück.