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Queue in front of a polling station in Berlin-Friedrichshain
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / picture alliance / dpa
If Franziska Giffey, ex-Federal Minister and at the time an expert in political glosses, had named this law, it might have been called the "Good Democrats Law".
But Giffey is currently failing elsewhere in Berlin, and so the name is simply: »Democracy Promotion Act«.
That doesn't change anything about the inflated claim.
"In this way we are strengthening civil society advisory, prevention and exit work as well as the empowerment of groups affected and will protect them from attacks," says the coalition agreement.
But this law will become a money laundering scheme for do-gooders rather than turning things around for the better.
It is indisputable that the reputation of democracy and the parties supporting it in Germany has pretty much gone to the dogs.
According to a Forsa survey for RTL, almost 50 percent of those questioned are less or not at all satisfied with democracy overall, and almost 60 percent don't trust any party to deal with the problems in Germany.
But does it help to put more money into advertising or into further explanation of the connections?
It may be that I have an old-fashioned, steam-powered understanding of politics, but I believe that the product must ultimately be better, not the packaging prettier or the advertising louder.
"Through the law, measures in the areas of democracy promotion, diversity design, extremism prevention and political education can be funded in the longer term, regardless of age and more needs-based than before," says the responsible Ministry for Family Affairs.
Nothing against long-term funding, but what is »diversity design«?
In my view, that gives a lot of indications - above all, far too little awareness of the country's problems that are leading to the current problems with democracy.
The emergency number 112 no longer works reliably everywhere, the school bus is not on time, we have capitulated to the train, the post no longer comes every day.
The core of state services of general interest, on which one can rely blindly, is shrinking - and with it the trust of the people.
No diversity seminar can compete with that.
These are substitute actions.
In 2016, the two largest federal funding programs had a combined budget of a good 60 million euros.
Next year there should already be 212 million for »Living Democracy« (about 600 projects) and »Cohesion through Participation«.
But especially in East Germany, the voters of the AfD and the Left Party do not want a frontal lesson in diversity.
They want a bus that runs on time, a reasonably affordable diesel price, affordable rents and a stable network for cell phones.
There have been enough announcements in this direction by the state, I assume good will.
But the implementation is a disaster.
Ten years ago, Allensbach boss Renate Köcher warned of the disintegration that would set in motion if the state no longer functioned as normal people rightly expect.
And it's getting more and more blatant: What used to fail due to a lack of money is failing today due to the inability to spend money sensibly, for example the German army.
Last week, a wise government representative explained to me why the procurement of equipment and large ammunition from the Bundeswehr is so lengthy: mainly because of the many rules, procedures and regulations.
But at some point I thought to myself: If a Martian sat here in my place who didn't know anything about the long history, then the little man would say: If the many rules are the problem, then change the rules!
Make it easy: A state that works and learns from mistakes - that would be good democracy promotion.
And yes it works.
In the past week alone, there have been two examples of how to advertise the state without blushing.
A liquefied natural gas terminal in the North Sea was completed and connected in a time that would hardly be sufficient for the first application under "normal" circumstances.
Construction began before the application was approved.
Because it was important.
And then the well-fortified state shows with three raids against right-wing Reich citizens, left-wing climate activists and a suspicious criminal clan that it protects security and lets people know from time to time where Bartel gets the must.
In short, it's very simple.
The vast majority of Germans want to see that their state works.
If he keeps failing to do so, they turn away, some loudly, most quietly.
The democracy promotion programs conceived in mostly saturated milieus do not help much here.
That's several sizes too small.