Constitutional Court rejects complaint from Unstrut-Hainich district!

Constitutional Court rejects complaint from Unstrut-Hainich district!

Today, June 25, 2025, the Thuringian Constitutional Court rejected the Unstrut-Hainich district's constitutional complaint. The district had sued in a legal dispute against parts of the reorganization law, which includes the transfer of five places to the Eichsfeld district. The Unstrut-Hainich district argued that this violated its right to local self-government. Despite financial compensation that the district received from the state, this was criticized as inadequate.

In its decision, the court made it clear that the Unstrut-Hainich district should first have appealed to the regular administrative courts. According to the judges, a constitutional complaint is only permissible as a last resort. This led to the finding that the court did not examine whether the redistricting law actually violated the constitution. The unresolved question of the state of Thuringia's insufficient financial resources also remained unanswered, as general references to a lack of funds were not sufficient for the court. Detailed and specific explanations were necessary to substantiate the financial concerns, which the district was unable to provide, as MDR reports.

Background of the lawsuit

The Unstrut-Hainich district's lawsuit is not the first of its kind in Germany. Similar proceedings have also ended up before the constitutional courts in other federal states such as Saxony-Anhalt. On October 20, 2015, the state constitutional court decided on the local constitutional complaint and found that the interpretation of the state constitution in this respect did not correspond to the requirements of the Basic Law. As a result, the complainants could not expect that their right to local self-government would be comprehensively protected, as Federal Constitutional Court reports.

These legal disputes illustrate how important it is to protect local self-government and that in some cases there can be tensions between state and federal law. While the constitutional courts make it clear that not every complaint can be resolved directly at the constitutional level, there remains uncertainty about financial support for those affected.

outlook

The decision of the Thuringian Constitutional Court will certainly have an impact on the future handling of similar cases. The Unstrut-Hainich district is sticking to its demands and will continue to monitor the situation closely. It remains to be seen whether and in what form a new lawsuit will be sought. What is clear, however, is that discussions about local self-government and the financial resources of districts in Thuringia and beyond remain very popular in the political arena.