German Constitutional Court: Suspension of Parliament was legal

The German Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) release its ruling today in which it rejected the action of two member of parliament against the suspension by the president (as reported in this blog before) as unfounded. They decided the president acted in accordance of the German constitution when he suspended the parliament after chancellor Schörder lost a vote of confidence. The reasoning is meanly based on that the chancellor has a discretion whether he still has the support of the parliament, which a court can only limited verify. In this case the court could not find points which obligatory lead to a from the chancellor's position dissenting decision.

With the ruling the way is free to new elections of the German parliament on September 18th.

Read more on

• Reuters: German court clears way for September 18 election and
• CNN: German court gives vote go-ahead.