City vs AfD Ruling: Lich must let AfD use civic center for event
Ruling: Lich must allow AfD to use town hall for event - Court Overrules Lich's Ban on AfD Event in Civic Centre
The city of Lich must allow the **AfD** faction of the Giessen district council to use one of its civic centers for a political event. The Administrative Court of Giessen granted an urgent application by the AfD district council faction. The city of Lich is now obliged to provide one of its civic centers in Lich for an 'open dialogue' event on October 11.
The AfD successfully challenged a decision by the city administration not to make the civic center in Lich or any other city facilities available for the planned event. The city had argued that its facilities could only be rented out if it was guaranteed that public safety and order would not be endangered by possible counter-demonstrations or similar.
The court adopted the AfD's view. The AfD had sought judicial review and argued that the civic center in the city center had been made available to political parties in the past. The city's claim that such events always had to be expected to be met with counter-demonstrations was speculative, the court found.
The court ruled that the AfD faction had a claim to use one of the civic centers of the city of Lich for their event. This follows from the principle of equal treatment and the principle of self-binding administration. The civic centers have been proven to have been regularly rented out to external or regional associations or for political events in the past. The city's mere assertion that counter-demonstrations posed a risk to public safety was not sufficient.
An appeal can be lodged within two weeks with the Higher Administrative Court of Hesse in Kassel.
