Democracy by Bureaucratic Decree: AfD Candidate Fights Electoral Exclusion

Democracy usually operates on a simple premise: the voters decide who gets the job. In Friesland, however, the electoral committee has opted for a more paternalistic approach. Martin Sichert, an AfD member of the Bundestag since 2017, was excluded from the upcoming district administrator election on September 13. His lawyer, Christian Wirth, has now filed an urgent 45-page motion with the Administrative Court of Oldenburg to force his reinstatement on the ballot.

The exclusion rests on a 2026 amendment to Lower Saxony’s regulations, mandating a constitutional loyalty check for executive candidates. On July 21, the electoral committee barred Sichert, granting his candidacy a single vote of support. This decision relied almost entirely on an assessment by the Lower Saxony Interior Ministry, acting as the municipal supervisory authority. The ministry concluded that the politician did not guarantee the preservation of the free democratic basic order.

The controversy stems from an apparent lack of independent scrutiny by the committee itself. According to Sichert’s lawyer, committee members received the ministry’s dossier a mere day before the vote. One member submitted an affidavit stating an inability to legally evaluate the material so quickly. Committee chairman Bernd Niebuhr reportedly admitted during the session that evaluating the ministry's examples was not his task. Wirth notes that a non-binding executive recommendation was simply rubber-stamped, rendering the session functionally absurd.

This legal challenge questions how the state handles political opposition. The Interior Ministry justified its doubts by pointing to Sichert’s role as district chairman for Friesland/Wittmund, his presence on the state list, and his membership in the unbanned AfD. His lawyer argues this constitutes a backdoor party ban. Under the Basic Law’s party privilege, unless the Federal Constitutional Court prohibits a party, its members cannot be administratively disadvantaged based on affiliation. With the submission deadline passed, the AfD is now left without any candidate.

The ministry also cited public statements by Sichert, which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution labelled as ethnopluralist and hostile to democracy. The defence counters that polemical criticism of migration or the use of terms like system parties does not equate to a desire to overthrow the constitutional order. Authorities are accused of cherry-picking remarks while ignoring the broader context of his political speech.

Sichert was officially advised to challenge the election results after the fact, a suggestion his legal team dismisses as wholly inadequate. Waiting until after September 13 would allow a candidate from the approved list, which includes the SPD, FDP, and the satirical party Die Partei, to take office and secure an incumbent advantage. The Administrative Court of Oldenburg must now decide whether the executive branch can filter the ballot before the electorate casts a vote.

Written by Martina Kirchner martina.kirchner@alpineweekly.com