UPDATE - AfD Ready To Take Fight Against Merkel's Thuringia Poll Meddling To OSCE - Spokesman

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 27th July, 2020) AfD will seek OSCE intervention if the top German court dismisses its complaint against Chancellor Angela Merkel over her role in the resignation of the elected Thuringian premier, the party's parliamentary spokesman for foreign affairs, told Sputnik on Monday.

Merkel sharply criticized a liberal leader's election in February to the top job in the former East German state with the support of both AfD and her conservative CDU. Thomas Kemmerich soon stepped down from the role. AfD filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court last week, accusing the chancellor of abusing her position.

Petr Bystron, the AfD spokesman in the federal parliament's foreign affairs committee, indicated that the right-wing party had no illusions about winning the legal battle because "the German justice system is not sufficiently independent."

"We are considering an appeal to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Germany is in clear violation of the OSCE rules on political parties," he said.

AfD argues that Merkel's comment on the Thuringian poll, in which she said that accepting votes from AfD was unacceptable and demanded that the outcome be reversed, was in breach of a constitutional rule that guaranteed a level playing field to all political parties.

"She gave a press conference in South Africa saying the democratic election must be 'undone.' She did this in her capacity as Federal Chancellor, not as party leader, since she is no longer head of the CDU. She was clearly overstepping the boundaries of her authority," he explained.

Anton Friesen, an AfD member of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, said to Sputnik he was optimistic about the party's prospects in the top court after it ruled in favor of another AfD lawsuit against conservative Interior Minister Horst Seehofer for violating neutrality rules, after he said in an interview that AfD was working to undermine the state.

"The probability that the Federal Constitutional Court is going to take legal action against the Chancellor is high. The Federal Constitutional Court has had a few decisions in the last days which were objective, not led by the will of the executive," he said.

Bystron said German voters will have a chance to express their opinion of what AfD sees as the federal interference in the devolved legislature at the ballot box during the 2021 general election, although he said his party feared the government will try to tamper with the vote with the help of "tax-funded propaganda."