Immunity waived 15 times in Bundestag during this legislative period
In the current legislative period, the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has waived the immunity of lawmakers in 15 cases to enable searches, disciplinary or criminal proceedings.
The parliament's online documentation system shows that 10 of these cases involved far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) lawmakers - some of them more than once. Four cases involved pro-business Free Democrat (FDP) politicians and one case involved a representative of the Greens.
In the last legislative period, there were 23 cases of immunity being lifted, seven each for the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the AfD, two each for the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), FDP and the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) party and three cases for independent lawmakers.
The figures do not provide any information about actual criminal behaviour, but only show that authorities took action in the course of investigations.
Immunity offers members of the Bundestag far-reaching protection from prosecution. "According to its historical development, this right is primarily intended to protect the working and functional capacity of parliament," the Bundestag's data manual states.
The aim is to protect lawmakers from being subjected to politically motivated lawsuits. However, they are not spared from investigations, indictments or searches.
According to the Bundestag's data manual, a general authorization has been in place for simple investigations since 1973, without the need for individual authorization.
