Karlsruhe examines financing: State funding for AfD-related foundation?

So far, the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, which is close to the AfD, has not received any subsidies from the state. Today the Federal Constitutional Court wants to decide whether this is legal. The most important questions and answers.

Why is the AfD suing in Karlsruhe?

The lawsuit by the AfD could lead to a reorganization of the entire system of funding for party-affiliated foundations. A fundamental ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court is expected on the question of whether the previous funding system is constitutional.

Most recently, the political foundations of the CDU, CSU, SPD, Greens, FDP and Left Party received over 650 million euros a year. Foundations such as the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation of the CDU or the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation of the SPD finance political educational work, offices abroad or scholarships for students.

The Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, which is close to the AfD, has not yet benefited from state funding. “We are suing on behalf of our party-affiliated foundation, which has been disadvantaged for years, and of course the party supporting it is indirectly disadvantaged,” said AfD member of the Bundestag Peter Boehringer at the hearing in late October 2022.

On what basis has it been funded so far?

So far, the funding system has worked as follows: The funds for political foundations are decided by the Bundestag during budget negotiations. The amount of money depends on how strongly a party is represented in the Bundestag.

The AfD relies on a constitutional court ruling from 1986. At that time, Karlsruhe had said: State funding for party-affiliated foundations must adequately take into account all permanent and important political trends.

Funding is also only available if the party that is close to the foundation is elected to the Bundestag twice in a row. However, the AfD wants the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation to receive money since 2018. So also for the time when the AfD sat in the Bundestag for the first time. If the party were successful at the Federal Constitutional Court, the foundation could receive around 70 million euros a year.

Does it need its own funding law?

So far, there is no separate funding law. Whether there must be such a law for political foundations was a central question at the constitutional court hearing last October.

Such a law is not necessary, says law professor Joachim Wieland, who represents the Bundestag in Karlsruhe. In his view, the normal budget law is sufficient: “The legislature is the same as with substantive laws. It is bound by the constitution, it must observe the principle of equality and it is not common in German law for subsidies to be regulated in a substantive law. ”

On the other hand, the AfD criticized the fact that the Bundestag would not pass a funding law to make judicial control more difficult.

State funding only for constitutional loyalty?

Another important question in the process: Can the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, which is close to the AfD, be funded even though the AfD is being observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and there are also doubts about the Erasmus Foundation’s loyalty to the constitution? The Bundestag therefore added a special budget note to the 2022 Budget Act for the first time. According to this, political foundations can only receive money if they are committed to the free democratic basic order of the Basic Law and stand up for its preservation. If there are doubts about the loyalty to the constitution, there must be no funding.

Martina Renner, member of the Bundestag for the left, said at the trial: “The AfD is unconstitutional. It rejects the guarantee of human dignity, it rejects the principle of equality in the Basic Law, it is racist and anti-Semitic.” It is therefore justified that the AfD-affiliated foundation does not receive any money from the state and is treated differently than the other party-affiliated foundations.

What doubts are there about loyalty to the constitution?

For example, Meron Mendel, head of the Anne Frank educational center and professor of social work in Frankfurt am Main, expressed doubts about the loyalty of the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation to the constitution. He warned that the AfD-affiliated foundation would receive government funding. “It would be a catastrophe for the community if democracy financed its own enemies,” Mendel said. The Erasmus Foundation has close links with right-wing extremist organizations such as the “Institute for State Policy”.

In addition, there is a “historical revisionist ideology” in the foundation, and some of the foundation’s protagonists “relalise the Holocaust,” Mendel warned more than a year ago in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. The chairwoman of the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, the former CDU politician Erika Steinbach, has also been criticized. Among other things, she was involved in the hate speech against the CDU politician Walter Lübcke via her Facebook account. Lübcke was murdered by a right-wing extremist in June 2019. The former CDU General Secretary Peter Tauber then accused Steinbach of being complicit in Lübcke’s death because of her social media activities.

Steinbach dismissed the allegation of lack of loyalty to the constitution during the trial as “blatant slander”. The trial representative for the AfD emphasized in the hearing: As long as the party is not banned, it must also be treated equally with regard to its party-affiliated foundation.

However, since 2017 there has been the possibility that anti-constitutional parties can be excluded from state party funding, even if they are not prohibited. Today’s judgment will show whether this idea can also be transferred to the financing of party-affiliated foundations. Above all, it will clarify whether a separate law is necessary for the financing of party-affiliated foundations. Sentencing will begin at 10 a.m.

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