The Regensburg district administrator sabers off a project to promote democracy - with questionable and contradictory justifications.
Regensburg – The story takes its course at the beginning of 2022.
In the youth welfare committee of the district of Regensburg, a resolution is officially passed on February 14 at the initiative of the district administrator.
From now on, the district of Regensburg wants to participate in the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs’ federal program “Live Democracy!” – just like the city has done since 2015.
Democracy project cut off: A year ago, the district administrator was still enthusiastic
In so-called "Partnerships for Democracy", civil society actors are to develop local action strategies to strengthen democracy and diversity and to combat any form of group-related enmity in cooperation with the municipalities and politicians.
This is the basic principle of "Live democracy!", which primarily promotes offers for young people and young adults.
At the time, Schweiger enthused:
“With the funding program 'Live Democracy!' we can once again significantly expand our previous activities in the field of political education and thus further strengthen the prevention work against exclusion. Existing offers such as 'School without Racism – School with Courage' can also be supported with the funding program.”
Funding program “Live Democracy!”: Nationwide success story
There are numerous such partnerships nationwide.
The program is generally considered a great success.
Since it was launched in 2015, more than 431 million euros have been paid out via “Leben Democracy!” in the first five years.
The annual funds used by the federal government for this increased due to demand from initially 40.5 million euros to 115 million euros by 2019.
The funds benefit a wide variety of areas.
In this way, lecture series can be implemented, festivals organized and long-term projects counter-financed.
In Bavaria, mobile advice against right-wing extremism is also co-financed via “Leben Democracy!”.
In Regensburg, the specialist advice center has one of three offices in the Free State and is regularly consulted by eastern Bavarian municipalities.
"Live democracy!" in the district of Regensburg: Only the AfD was against it
After the unanimous decision in February 2022, funds will be appropriated shortly afterwards in the annual budget of the district council.
74,800 euros, among other things, for a permanent position that is docked to the district youth welfare office in Regensburg.
The department is one of four pillars on which the "partnership" is built.
Only the AfD sees this critically in the budget debate.
Their district councilor Michael Ofen praises the work of the district in principle in the spring.
However, he must explicitly exclude participation in the “Democracy Life!” program.
It attacks "unilaterally conservative lifestyles and points of view", wants to "educate the people (...) to democracy (...)" and supports "more than questionable institutions" like the Ditib.
At least the latter is no longer the case after a change in 2017.
(By the way: Our brand new Regensburg newsletter will keep you regularly informed about all the important stories from the World Heritage city and the Upper Palatinate. Register here.)
"Live democracy!": The district went its own way from the start
In addition to the newly created administrative specialist at the district youth welfare office as the lead agency, the Federal Ministry is planning to cooperate with an independent agency.
It is not uncommon for these to be district youth councils, in which a so-called coordination and specialist office is installed as the second pillar of the “partnership”.
In "justified exceptional cases" the specialist office can also be located in the administration, provided that the municipality then bears the costs itself.
In the case of the district, they go their own way.
According to a press release from February, this half-time job for a socio-educational specialist will be borne entirely by the federal government.
However, the district administrator ultimately has a hand here too.
Because the coordination center is subordinate to the association for youth work in the district of Regensburg eV, whose 1st chair is Tanja Schweiger.
District Administrator cuts off democracy project: The DGB youth was not acceptable
The central task of the coordination office is the overall coordination of the "Partnership for Democracy".
This also includes supervising the Monitoring Committee.
This is where representatives of civil society, often also of political parties, churches and other actors come together.
The committee is responsible for strategic planning and content orientation.
The committee also examines and approves submitted project applications.
Last June, the coordination office for the district invited to a first informal meeting - as a kick-off for the imminent start.
Also present - according to documents available to our editors - were the Banana Flanke eV, the Association for Pop Culture, the Youth Migration Service and several Alliances for Tolerance, all of whom will later also attend the constitutive meeting on September 16th.
DGB youth is unloaded: In other municipalities, unions sit at the table
The DGB-Jugend Oberpfalz is also invited in June.
Their youth secretary Martin Oswald has to cancel at short notice due to illness and is quite surprised a few weeks later.
Actually, as Oswald explains when we asked, there are no major specifications.
"Each municipality handles the composition of the monitoring committee differently." As a rule, partners from civil society are sought who also have something to do with education and youth work.
Unions are on board in other municipalities and, in principle, union youth fit in well.
He then quickly expressed interest and assumed that the process would be rather unbureaucratic.
DGB youth unloaded: "Politically not acceptable"
It turns out differently.
It was communicated by e-mail that "after internal considerations regarding the overall composition of the content", the union youth would not be sitting at the table.
"We don't have any right to be in there," Oswald says.
"If we had never been invited, then that would be the case."
He is annoyed, however, that one was invited with "obviously pretended reasons" before the constitutive meeting.
That was the "real scandal".
His assumption: the district administrator was not entirely uninvolved.
"We were simply not politically acceptable."
Democracy project cut off: Contradictory justifications
When asked, the district office delivers a completely different story.
Accordingly, the DGB youth had fallen victim to the drawing of lots.
"Then you could have simply said that when you were unloaded and you wouldn't have had to fiddle around with the language," counters Oswald.
But why isn't the press office playing with open cards here?
From the environment of the monitoring committee, it can be heard from several places that Schweiger's dealings with the committee were special from the start.
On September 16, the district administrator appeared unannounced.
At the beginning she is said to have walked through the rows, examined the signs and briefly greeted the representatives of the individual member groups with an "Aha".
Regensburg District Administrator: Self-promotion instead of promoting democracy?
Before she quickly hurried away again, she briefly presented her idea of the project: young people should be brought closer to the administration and the work of the district.
Some kind of self-promotion?
At least not what “Democracy Life!” was designed by the federal government for.
For Klaus Nebl, district councilor of the Left Party, it was "unfortunately already evident at the inaugural meeting of the monitoring committee that the desired orientation by the district administrator did not correspond 100 percent with the orientation given to us".
Not least because the work of the monitoring committee requires “a certain amount of autonomy”, “so that democratically decided activities can also be implemented and do not have to be additionally 'approved'”, says Nebl.
Democracy project cut off: meetings canceled and inquiries not answered
It was to remain the Monitoring Committee's first and only meeting.
A scheduled meeting a few weeks later is cancelled.
The same applies to the democracy conference scheduled for mid-November.
This should be done at least once a year.
Here, together with other actors from civil society, ideas for strengthening democracy at the local level are to be developed.
The DGB youth, recently awarded the youth work prize of the Oberpfalz District Youth Council in the presence of the Bavarian Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger and the district administrator, is also invited to the Democracy Conference.
Likewise the mobile consultation.
Democracy Conference: Should the AfD also have been allowed to participate?
But the AfD should probably have taken part, too.
For several months, she has been demonstrating regularly, alternately in Neutraubling and Regenstauf, with a few comrades-in-arms.
The district alliance for tolerance and human rights, which organizes counter-protests and is part of the monitoring committee, is always on site.
A joint participation in the Democracy Conference could have been interesting.
Although the whole event would probably have passed unnoticed by the public.
The conference was not widely advertised at the time and was canceled in the end anyway.
Officially because the two specialist departments were absent due to illness.
Democracy project cut off: Direct influence of the district administrator?
When talking to people from the partnership environment, however, there are several abnormalities surrounding the democracy conference that indicate direct influence by the district administrator.
In retrospect, it should have gradually become apparent that the project should not get a real chance in February 2022, despite major announcements.
The Monitoring Committee is not informed for weeks and does not really respond to inquiries.
For the coordination office, it has long been foreseeable that there will be a vacancy here, at least for a short period of time, due to private circumstances - unless a replacement is arranged, which apparently did not happen.
Democracy project cut off: unanimous decision ignored
The decision of the youth welfare committee had planned a first phase until the end of 2024.
The closer the holidays get, the more rumors arise that the district administrator wants to scrap the project that has become unpopular.
A pre-formulated email will be sent on January 5th (the letter is available to our editors).
An extension of the funding program was not applied for at the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs and the partnership was thus terminated unilaterally by the district on December 31, 2022.
The reasons given by the social department of the district office in the mail to the monitoring committee include sick leave at the two responsible offices.
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Democracy project sawed off: And again a questionable justification
When asked by our editors, the press office then officially said that the project had turned out to be “only feasible to a limited extent due to high administrative and personnel requirements”.
While other municipalities do not seem to have such problems, the district of Regensburg "now wants to focus on other areas of the Democracy Promotion Act".
Project cut off: District Administrator Schweiger wants to keep control of herself
The Federal Government's new Democracy Promotion Act is also mentioned in the email to the Monitoring Committee.
This has resulted in a "completely new situation," they say.
And further:
“The new Democracy Promotion Act now gives our district the option of having their own projects that are intended to support democracy funded directly by the federal government. This gives us the opportunity to build on our existing structures, the expectations that we have of the funding program 'Live Democracy!' had to implement without building up parallel structures.”
Instead of a parallel structure in which the district has to exchange ideas with partners from civil society, the district apparently prefers to advance its own projects in the future and keep democracy promotion in the hands of the district administrator.
What is ignored is that the new Democracy Promotion Act is only available as a draft and has not yet been passed.
Democracy project sawed off: An isolated case that causes irritation
When we asked a ministry spokeswoman, a ministry spokeswoman explained that partnerships like the one with the district are being terminated prematurely, although this has happened “in individual cases”, but by no means as a rule.
The monitoring committee is not very happy about this.
The initial euphoria among those involved was quickly curbed, according to the already mentioned Alliance for Tolerance and Human Rights in the district of Regensburg e.
V
Democracy project sawed off: Alliance sees good projects at risk
Especially with a view to the upcoming state elections in Bavaria, one would like to have "started good projects - not only by us", "with which the disenchantment with politics, especially among young people, can be counteracted".
The plug is now being pulled from ongoing considerations and ideas that are currently maturing.
"We currently do not see the implementation of all plans from our own funds," says the alliance.
The District Administrator's actions are not met with much joy in the SPD district either.
The district now has to do without the 160,000 euros with which the federal government in turn supports the partnership every year.
Democracy project sawed off: SPD speaks of “undemocratic act”
Because the district administrator no longer followed a unanimously made decision and "without first consulting with the youth welfare committee or another committee of the Regensburg district", ended the project on her own authority.
So the SPD in a statement last weekend.
"We see this approach as an undemocratic act. In a functioning democracy, resolutions are valid and are not unilaterally revoked," SPD chairman Matthias Jobst made clear.
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