Karlsruhe/Berlin. In the dispute over an Instagram video by Federal Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU), the Left has achieved success at the Federal Constitutional Court. The minister must first remove the video published on her ministry's website, the highest German court in Karlsruhe decided, thereby granting an urgent request from the Left.
It's about a video on the ministry's Instagram account with excerpts from a speech on September 23rd - a few days after the Left's election victory in Berlin. In it, Reiche warns that it is dangerous for the capital and Germany as an investment location that a party talks about expropriation and writes this into its program and that “anti-Semitism is openly practiced, which frightens the Jews in this city.”
The Left had asked the minister through a lawyer to remove the video by September 29th. However, that didn't happen. The party turned to the Federal Constitutional Court with a lawsuit and an urgent application. The latter was now successful. The Second Senate in Karlsruhe decided that Reiche must delete the video until a decision has been made on the organ lawsuit in the main matter - but for a maximum of six months.
If the court does not issue this interim order, but the lawsuit is later successful, the Left could potentially suffer “serious, irreparable disadvantage with regard to its right to equal participation in political competition” due to the continued spread, the judges explained in their decision. This is particularly true in light of the ongoing talks to form a government in Berlin.
However, if the lawsuit is later unsuccessful, Reiche will not be prevented from repeating the statements. In addition, she can express herself during the ongoing proceedings as a party politician or private individual within the scope of freedom of expression. The clarification of the question of whether the disputed statements are constitutional remains reserved for the main proceedings. The decision was made with a 6-2 judge vote.
The Left's application, which was available to the German Press Agency and other media, stated that Reiche had disregarded the neutrality requirement for state organs and violated the Left's right to equal participation in political competition. As Minister of Economics, she made illegal, “one-sided and party-political” statements and was “part of a systematic campaign” by the CDU against the Left.
A ministry spokesman did not want to make any further comments during the ongoing proceedings and simply stated that the contribution was an extension of a speech to family entrepreneurs and clearly referred to the effects on and threats to Germany as a business location. The title of the clip on Instagram is “Making a strong business and investment location”.
Reiche's lawyers also argue in response with reference to the economy. “If the federal government pursues the goal of improving investment conditions in Germany and mobilizing private and international capital for the business location, it is fundamentally part of its information and public relations work to explain this goal and to inform the public about developments that it assesses as threats to the framework conditions required for this,” says Schertz Bergmann’s written statement, which is available to the dpa.
With regard to the accusation of anti-Semitism, the law firm refers to a “public dispute that has existed for years and has escalated again in 2026 about how the applicant’s Berlin regional association deals with anti-Semitic positions and incidents.” There is also an economic connection here. The letter states, among other things: "The debate about anti-Semitism and the security of Jewish life also has a significant economic location dimension: Berlin's international attractiveness as the capital of Germany as an investment location is based precisely on its perception as a cosmopolitan and safe place for people of different origins and religions."
In the election to the Berlin House of Representatives on September 20th, the Left was clearly the strongest force. The party is also taking legal action against other politicians who have accused the party of anti-Semitism and proximity to criminal clans via social media. Some deleted their posts afterwards, others didn't.
From the perspective of the Left, an interim order from the Constitutional Court was necessary to prevent further disruption, especially in the current phase of possible coalition formation. “There could be irreparable damage to the ongoing formation of a government in Berlin,” the application states.
