Left party files suit at constitutional court over right to ask questions

Controversy over major inquiry

The bone of contention is a major inquiry by the Left Party on data protection with a total of 1,090 questions. The Left Party wanted to know how the Free State of Bavaria uses registration data and what precautions it takes to protect it. "We will refrain from answering", the Ministry of the Interior announced.

In the view of the state government, the inquiry was "likely to impair the functioning of the state government due to the scope of the questions and the specific date on which it was submitted to the President of the Saxon State Parliament (date of receipt December 11, 2023)", it said.

The Left Party argued that the major interpellation was only very extensive at first glance. It addresses the same manageable set of questions to all relevant offices, authorities and other public bodies. "These addressees are so numerous because the Ministry of the Interior has entrusted them with the regular processing of registration data by means of a registration ordinance." The background to this is also cases of misuse from other federal states, in which police officers, for example, have been found to have made inappropriate queries. Access to registration data is hardly controlled.