Questionnaire Germany

III.11 May the highest official be dismissed in the course of this term?

Yes, the policy issue of the status of Prosecutors General is subject to controversy. Some authors stress the fact that the Prosecutor General must be in harmony with the government’s general policy orientation and that it should therefore be possible to replace him when a new government comes into power; others stress the need to keep his function as the chief law enforcement officer free from political considerations and therefore argue in favour of according him full civil service protection, i.e., that he could be dismissed only in cases of severe disciplinary infractions. The trend is toward the latter view.