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The Reichstag building in Berlin
Photo: Joo.
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¼rgen Held / imago images / Westend61
According to information from SPIEGEL, the Union parliamentary group does not want to support the draft for the Democracy Promotion Act called for by the SPD.
Although the cabinet committee for right-wing extremism of the federal government had agreed on it, the law hardly has any chance of being passed in this legislature.
A spokesman for the CDU / CSU parliamentary group confirmed that the Union did not want to support the draft in its current form.
The relevant key points, which the Interior Ministry and the Family Ministry had been negotiating for months, should actually be discussed in the cabinet on Wednesday.
This should no longer happen.
Union MPs have too many concerns about supporting “too left” organizations with the envisaged law, according to the Ministry of Family Affairs.
The turnaround is surprising, as the previously extremely skeptical Ministry of the Interior also negotiated and was satisfied with the current version.
Among other things, the law was intended as a step in the fight against right-wing extremism after the murder of CDU politician Walter Lübcke and was praised as an important part of the package of measures.
The current draft deviates "in essential points" from the "demands and ideas of a corresponding legislative proposal," a parliamentary group spokesman for the Union told SPIEGEL.
Specifically, the CDU and CSU are demanding a commitment to the free democratic basic order of the Federal Republic of Germany from those who could be financially supported on the basis of the law, i.e. a renewal of the "extremism clause".
From the Union's point of view, the commitment to democracy envisaged by the key issues paper is insufficient and no progress.
The “extremism clause” was introduced by the CDU Family Minister Kristina Schröder in 2011, and her successor Manuela Schwesig (SPD) and Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) abolished it three years later.
The clause put all organizations that campaign against right-wing extremism under general suspicion of being left-wing extremists.
Since then, it has been regulated in the grant notification that no tax money may go to extremist organizations or people, not even through project partners.
In addition, according to the Union's spokesman, another aspect that is essential for the MPs on practical democracy promotion is missing in the draft: the strengthening of the federal voluntary service.
This is in a version of the key points draft from 18.3.
was still included as a legal right to partial financing.
In the draft that has now been submitted, however, it would only appear as a test order.
akm / ire