7. May 2022
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President Christoph Grabenwarter counters criticism of decisions by the Constitutional Court on corona protection measures. The task of the Constitutional Court is not to evaluate scientific studies, but to examine the process of issuing the regulation. And there was a “considerable” improvement, said Grabenwarter on Saturday in the Ö1 series “Im Journal zu Gast”. He thought it would make sense to have a “cooling off phase” for the appointment of government members to the Constitutional Court.
A total of around 800 corona complaints have been received by the VfGH so far, 600 of which have already been settled and 100 were successful, Grabenwarter reported. Recently, complaints against the “lockdowns for the unvaccinated” have not been successful. On Friday, the court announced that an appeal for the second of these lockdowns was also dismissed as unfounded in terms of content – because the measures imposed were permissible in view of the infection situation.
This outraged the opponents of the measure, as could be seen on social media, and FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl warned of a loss of confidence in the Constitutional Court. FPÖ constitutional spokeswoman Susanne Fürst followed up on Saturday and reiterated in a broadcast the demand for the publication of dissenting opinions on the findings of the Constitutional Court.
Grabenwarter countered the criticism with the justification for the decision. The VfGH found that the government had acted on a factual basis – in a situation where the omicron variant had become dominant within a few weeks. It is important that this factual basis is available and sufficiently documented. This was not the case at the beginning of the pandemic, when the regulations – such as the one that closed Graz playgrounds in April 2020 – were only “very dry”. But already at the turn of the year 2020/2021 it had “improved significantly”, stated the VfGH President.
Criticism of the seamless transition between ministerial office and the post of constitutional judge arose in view of the resignation of ex-Justice Minister Wolfgang Brandstetter – after sensitive chats surfaced – as constitutional judge in June 2021. The fact that members of the government can switch directly to the Constitutional Court is “not right”, Grabenwarter stated, a cooling-off phase – like the one that occurs at the age of five for the president and vice-president – would also make sense for constitutional judges.
The Constitutional Court President also affirmed that he does not consider the introduction of an independent federal prosecutor to be absolutely necessary. The democratic principle is firmly anchored in the minister’s responsibility – and this also includes being able to issue instructions. These must be transparent and lawful, and the minister must answer to Parliament. Against this background, “I don’t find anything negative about the authority of the Minister of Justice” to issue instructions to the law enforcement authorities, said Grabenwarter.
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