The Bundestag has voted for a law that ties state funding for party-affiliated foundations to loyalty to the constitution. This means that the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation could continue to come away empty-handed. The party protested sharply.
For the first time, the Bundestag has placed state funding of party-affiliated foundations on a legal basis. The passed law stipulates that a foundation will only be funded if the party to which it is affiliated is represented in parliamentary group size in the Bundestag at least three times in a row.
The respective party must not be excluded from state party financing. And the foundation must guarantee that it will actively promote the free, democratic basic order and the idea of international understanding. The law was approved with the votes of the SPD, Greens, FDP and Union. The majority of the left also voted for it.
AfD sees itself excluded
The AfD and all non-attached MPs voted unanimously against it. The AfD protested vehemently against the law because it sees itself at a disadvantage. She is only sitting in the Bundestag in the second electoral term. The AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (DES) is currently not entitled to funding. In addition, the required commitment to the free democratic basic order is likely to become an obstacle in the future because two AfD state associations – Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt – are now classified as definitely right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The AfD as a whole is considered a suspected right-wing extremist case.
The AfD MP Albrecht Glaser rated the law as unconstitutional and spoke of an “AfD prevention law”. He accused the other parties of: “They are delegitimizing this state through self-service by the political class.” His party colleague Peter Boehringer called the new rules a “brazen example of abuse of power and nepotism.”
Erika Steinbach, the chairwoman of the DES, spoke of a “targeted exclusion of an important opposition force.” The Bundestag had “quite openly made clear an oppressive contempt for democracy that would be an honor to any authoritarian country.”
Constitutional Court warned Rule
The legal regulation became necessary because the AfD had successfully sued the Federal Constitutional Court against the fact that the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation has so far been excluded from state funding. In February, the constitutional judges rejected the previous funding practice. The court ruled that the DES exemption for 2019 constituted a violation of equal opportunities in political competition. At the same time, a legal regulation was requested.
All parties represented in the Bundestag have foundations that are close to them. They carry out political education work at home and abroad, are active in the area of political research and advice and award scholarships to students. Financial support from the federal budget amounts to several hundred million euros annually. The AfD now also wants to take action against the new law in Karlsruhe.
“No money for enemies of the constitution”
Speakers from the traffic light coalition as well as from the Union and the Left Party defended the foundation law in the Bundestag against the AfD’s attacks. “The most important regulation is very clear: No money for enemies of the constitution,” said SPD MP Johannes Fechner. Konstantin von Notz (Green Party) emphasized that the following applies to all foundations: “Anyone who specifically gathers extremists behind them and becomes their mouthpiece must not be funded by the state.”
On behalf of the Left, Clara Bünger accused the AfD of: “If the AfD has a problem with this law, then that only means that as a party it has a problem with democracy and our democratic values as a whole.” Stephan Thomae from the FDP pointed out that the foundations have great freedom in how they use the funds. “But one thing is clear: that they must not and never use these means against this democracy.”
CDU MP Ansgar Heveling also emphasized: “This law is not directed against any party at all, but rather it explicitly requires commitment to the free-democratic basic order – from all parties that want to receive funding for their political foundations. “