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Action by the Campact organization before the Federal Constitutional Court: protest against possible state subsidies for a foundation close to the AfD
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
Party-affiliated foundations receive millions of euros from the state every year.
The Federal Constitutional Court has now decided that the Desiderius-Erasmus-Foundation (DES), which is close to the AfD, has been exempt from this so far, is a violation of equal opportunities in political competition.
The promotion of party-affiliated foundations must therefore be regulated in a law.
The court found that this funding was “a question that is essential for the design of our democratic order”.
Only a law “ensures that all members of parliament and the public have the opportunity to discuss the planned regulations and form an opinion in the legislative process”.
The traffic light parties had planned exactly such a law in their coalition agreement.
But so far nothing has happened.
Even within the coalition, this was met with criticism, especially from the FDP and the Greens.
The subliminal accusation was that the SPD was slowing down the project because the party-affiliated Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation was doing very well in the current situation when it came to promoting political foundations.
SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese is now defending himself.
"The fact that the SPD is accused by some quarters of having blocked a law on foundation funding is simply wrong," he told SPIEGEL.
In the coalition agreement, it was intended to provide more precise legal protection for the foundation's financing.
"But we didn't want to rush ahead with a draft law, but rather wait for the verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court."
This now makes it clear that it is possible to exclude enemies of the constitution from funding.
“According to today’s judgment, a legal regulation is required for this.
And we will now take care of them very quickly in the coalition," said the SPD politician.
However, that sounds very different from what Wiese said on the subject last July.
A foundation law is a conceivable possibility, "but would not necessarily create added value in terms of transparency and control," the social democrat told SPIEGEL at the time.
A necessity "so far cannot be derived from case law" and is controversial among experts.
Better legal protection is also possible via a simple decision in the budget law or, if necessary, adapted administrative regulations.
In fact, the verdict does not necessarily mean that DES, like the other six party-affiliated foundations, will receive money from the state in the future.
According to Doris König, Vice-President of the Federal Constitutional Court, it would be possible to exclude individual foundations from funding »to protect equivalent constitutional assets«.
"The protection of the free democratic basic order is particularly important as such an equivalent constitutional good," she said at the pronouncement of the verdict in Karlsruhe.
However, the judges expressly did not comment on the requirements and consequences of such a regulation.
ulz/sog/akm