The problem with the funding for the AfD-related foundation – and what Karlsruhe has to do with it

analysis

All parties represented in the Bundestag have a party-affiliated foundation. The Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, for example, is close to the Union, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation to the SPD and the Heinrich Böll Foundation the Greens. They are all independent of their related parties and research openly. Your task will be published on the website of the Ministry of the Interior summarized as follows:

And because foundations are seen as such an important point in a democratic society, they receive federal funding. So-called global grants are provided for in the budget of the Federal Ministry of the Interior. For certain tasks, the foundations can also get money from the budgets of other ministries and from the Bundestag. The amount of the funds is determined in the negotiations on the federal budget.

Funding for foundations is insufficiently regulated by law

But not all party-affiliated foundations are funded equally. There is no money for the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (DES), which is close to the AfD. In your self-image it is the “only conservative, political foundation” that wants to get involved in Germany’s future as a nation, the rule of law, democracy and freedom of expression.

Former CDU politician Erika Steinbach is chairwoman of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation.Image: imago images/Metodi Popow

She thinks that DES is not funded AfD unfair. For this reason, the Federal Constitutional Court must now judge the case.

The problem is that foundation funding is not regulated by law. A ruling by the Constitutional Court from 1986 serves as a guideline. It states that it must be ensured “that such funding appropriately takes into account all permanent, significant political trends in the Federal Republic of Germany”. But at what point is a political trend permanent?

In 1998, the foundations themselves suggested that “repeated representation” of the party in question in parliamentary group strength in the Bundestag was a suitable point of reference. The AfD has fulfilled this premise since this legislative period. In the state parliaments even longer. Despite this, DES was not given any money in the budget.

The party therefore feels that its right to equal opportunities has been violated. DES chairwoman Erika Steinbach criticized the dpa news agency:

The AfD wants to establish that the exclusion from funding violates constitutional law. Your organ lawsuit is directed against the Bundestag, the Budget Committee, the Federal Government, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance. The foundation itself had previously tried a constitutional complaint, but was initially referred to the specialized courts.

In 2022, the Administrative Court of Cologne ruled that the DES had rightly been refused funding until 2021 – the criterion of entering the Bundestag twice was unobjectionable. The verdict is not yet legally binding. However, it is possible that the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe will also rule in the same way.

Tax millions for “extreme right-wing think tank”?

If the court decides in favor of the DES and the AfD, the foundation could be entitled to 70 million euros from taxpayers’ money. This reports the “daily mirror” and refers to calculations of the Otto-Brenner-Foundation.

An idea that organizations like the campaign platform Campact and the Frankfurt educational institution Anne Frank do not like. Should the DES be right, the emergence of an extreme right-wing think tank that will be financed with millions of taxpayers’ money threatens, says the director of the educational institution, Meron Mendel.

The DES is involved in the right-wing scene.Image: dpa / Fabian shrub

At a press conference shortly before the verdict, he referred to the foundation’s close ties to right-wing extremist organizations such as the “Institut für Staatspolitik” (IfS). The Otto Brenner Foundation states in a publication on the DES that the IfS has exerted enormous influence on the ideological orientation and radicalization of the entire right-wing camp over the past 20 years. One of the founding members, Karlheinz Weißmann, is a member of the DES Board of Trustees.

According to the publication, there should also be connections with a number of other right-wing movements and associations, for example the Identitarian Movement and fraternities.

“Actors with long-standing and good connections to the New Right spectrum continue to determine a large part of the DES strategy,” writes the Otto Brenner Foundation in the publication. The DES has also made it its task to contribute to theory building with training courses and seminars. Politicians and scientists should also be brought together there.

The DES itself should also act as an advisory committee. Topics that the foundation deals with include demography and migration, gender and direct democracy. In the magazine “Faktum” DES presents its thoughts and theses to the outside world. It contains contributions from AfD politicians, members of the Board of Trustees and people close to the AfD. This includes: new-right content.

Former AfD spokesman Jörg Meuthen has also published in “Faktum”.Image: dpa / Bernd von Jutrczenka

With funding worth millions, DES could expand its right-wing cadre school. Campact and the Anne Frank educational institution have a suggestion as to how this advance could be circumvented.

Traffic light action required

The “Tagesspiegel” summarizes the plan as follows: Foundations that are not actively and demonstrably committed to the free-democratic basic order and human rights should be excluded from funding by law. The same applies if the associated party is classified as anti-constitutional.

Campact also calls for part of the funding not to be distributed as a lump sum, but to be linked to conditions. A corresponding appeal titled “No tax money for the AfD Foundation!” has been signed by 394,496 people so far.

So far, the traffic lights have not given enough attention to reforming party financing, the initiatives complain. And this despite the fact that the coalition partners had agreed on this in their coalition agreement. From the point of view of the initiatives, the brake block is the SPD – Greens and FDP have already spoken out in favor of reform.

Omid Nouripour is clearly in favor of a foundation law.Image: IMAGO/Chris Emil Janßen / imago images

Green leader Omid Nouripour declared in autumn 2022:

The FDP parliamentary group has already spoken out in favor of a foundation law with fixed criteria. SPD parliamentary secretary Johannes Fechner had said that his party was not against a legal regulation. But the decisive question is: “What should it say? What criteria can we use here to prevent enemies of democracy from receiving tax revenue?” One hopes for clues from the judgment of the constitutional judges, which is expected on Wednesday, February 22 at 10 a.m.

The hope of the initiatives is that the verdict from Karlsruhe could speed up the legislative process.

(With material from dpa)