The complete ban on gatherings at the beginning of the corona pandemic in April 2020 was disproportionate according to a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court. The highest German administrative court in Leipzig classified the corresponding passage of a Saxon Corona Protection Ordinance as ineffective on Wednesday. According to the ordinance, gatherings were only permitted with a permit. Other federal states had also banned rallies at the time.
According to the court, the ban on assemblies could be based on the Infection Protection Act. The authorities could also assume that other protective measures would not have been equally effective. “However, this purpose and the expected achievement of the purpose were disproportionate to the severity of the encroachment on fundamental rights,” the judgment said. (Ref.: BVerwG 3 CN 1.22)
The complete ban was “a serious encroachment on freedom of assembly,” according to the court. The fact that the regulation held out the prospect of individual approvals has changed little. It was not clear from the regulation under which conditions meetings could have been justifiable despite the pandemic. The state government should have regulated this “in order to at least make open-air meetings with a limited number of participants possible again, taking into account protective requirements”.
A 36-year-old complained who wanted to demonstrate against a restriction of fundamental rights in front of the Ministry of Health in Dresden. He was unsuccessful in the lower court at the Saxon Higher Administrative Court.
