Overview
- Employees of lawmakers and factions will face a staged review consisting of a self-disclosure, a criminal-record check, and targeted queries to the state intelligence service and criminal police, covering roughly 470 staff.
- Access to parliamentary resources and public funding will be limited to staff whose constitutional loyalty is confirmed, with CDU, SPD, Greens and FDP backing the change and AfD voting against it.
- AfD leaders denounced the rules as a politically motivated attack and warned of potential misuse, while governing parties framed the step as safeguarding democratic institutions.
- A day earlier, the Landtag also passed a revised intelligence law granting judge-approved online searches of computers and phones, longer retention of some minors’ data in defined exceptions, and a legal basis to publicly name extremist groups.
- The overhaul responds to a 2024 Federal Constitutional Court ruling that found parts of Hesse’s prior law unconstitutional; the package adds annual parliamentary reporting that now explicitly covers approved online searches, with Interior Minister Roman Poseck citing nearly 13,000 extremists in the state.