According to the judgment of the BVerfG: AfD-related foundation should not receive any money

According to the judgment from Karlsruhe, there must be a funding law for political foundations in the future. But one thing must not happen: that the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, which is close to the AfD, receives millions from the state.

The AfD sells the verdict from Karlsruhe as a success. And one thing is true: for years there have been warnings that there must be an extra funding law for party-affiliated foundations. Only with a different reason than now in the case of the AfD, which simply wants its share of the millions from the state.

For example, the Green Party politician Volker Beck proposed a law some time ago that regulates: A political foundation may only receive state money if it passes a “democracy TÜV”. And it is now up to the legislature to do this. Because one thing must not come out of the new regulation under any circumstances: namely that the AfD-affiliated Desiderius-Erasmus Foundation receives state millions.

Unequal treatment of the AfD?

But wouldn’t that be unequal treatment of the AfD? Isn’t party privilege included in the Basic Law? So the principle: as long as a party is not banned, you have to face it in political competition and not exclude it. And doesn’t that also have to apply to party-affiliated foundations, which are there precisely to bring political content into society?

State money also for the AfD Foundation – there are at least two reasons why this shouldn’t exist: On the one hand, there has been a new idea in our constitution since 2017: Even if a party is not banned, it can still be excluded from state party funding . Prerequisite: It is anti-constitutional. The logic behind this is clear: Where would a democracy end up if it finances its own enemies with many millions?

The Desiderius Erasmus Foundation anti-constitutional? “That’s sheer slander!” Erika Steinbach, chair of the foundation, was outraged in Karlsruhe. Ironically, Steinbach, who was involved in the hate speech against Walter Lübcke on social media before he was murdered by a neo-Nazi. At that time, the CDU said it was complicit in the death of Walter Lübcke.

Hate words quickly turn into hate actions

Three and a half years after Kassel and three years after the right-wing extremist murders in Hanau, there is no other way to put it: Hate words quickly turn into hate acts in Germany. The Hanau assassin had also watched a speech by AfD politician Björn Höcke the evening before his murders.

To ask? No! But a clear answer: The state must not spend millions on the cadres of a right-wing party like the AfD. No millions for a party that wants to raise nothing but small Björn Höckes with the money at German universities. The money for an AfD foundation is not about equality in political competition, but about the well-fortified democracy that has to refuse this money. For a long time, the legislature avoided clearly regulating the “Democracy TÜV” for political foundations. Now is the time.