As of: January 27, 2024, 12:12 p.m
By: Nicola Kuhrt
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Björn Höcke, AfD parliamentary group leader, during the meeting of the Thuringian state parliament © Martin Schutt/dpa
A new state parliament will be elected in the fall in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony.
Could the elections in the East endanger free science?
The question of what an election victory for the AfD in Saxony, Thuringia or Brandenburg would mean specifically for the existence of the fundamental freedom of science is becoming more urgent.
On the one hand, the party's poll numbers remain high.
On the other hand, the Correctiv editorial team has revealed what plans the AfD is pursuing.
The meeting in Potsdam, attended by neo-Nazis such as Martin Sellner, but also members of the CDU and high-ranking members of the AfD, discussed how millions of people could be effectively brought out of Germany.
Against the background of this radicalization, the science policy positions and statements of the AfD also take on a completely new dimension.
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Science and research: What is in the AfD's basic program?
They are convinced democrats, it says in the preamble to the AfD's basic program.
The AfD's election program contains demands for elite education and more discipline.
The Bologna Process is rejected, gender research and inclusion are excluded, and migrants are blamed for the Pisa shock.
In the areas of schools, universities and research, the following is required:
“Research and teaching in unity and freedom” and feel committed to the “Humboldt educational ideal”.
This ideal is linked to more “performance and discipline” that should return to schools.
The entire Bologna process is described in the program as a “mistake”.
What is therefore required is a return to the tried and tested degrees of diploma, master's degree and state examination.
They want to abolish “gender research”.
This does not meet “the demands that must be placed on serious research”.
Existing gender professorships should no longer be continued.
Gender quotas are generally rejected.
People speak out against “ideologically motivated inclusion”.
There will be elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg in September.
In all three countries, the AfD is ahead in surveys, sometimes by a significant margin.
It is not ruled out that it could obtain a majority of parliamentary seats in at least one of the countries and nominate a prime minister.
The party is classified as a suspected right-wing extremist case by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
What do the AfD's plans mean for science and education in Germany?
Education policy is one of the central battle arenas for right-wing populists to shift social discourse to the right, says Mark Rackles, former State Secretary for Education in the Berlin Senate and member of the KMK Heads of Office Conference.
In his commentary for Table.Media, he cites as an example the AfD's reactions to the poor German results in the Pisa comparative studies, which systematically link educational deficits with people of foreign origin: "Without migration transition, there is no educational transition" (MdB Höchst, AfD);
Overburdened by “migrant quotas and uncontrolled mass immigration” (MdA Weiß, AfD);
“Wrong asylum and migration policies [have] a full impact on the school sector” (Member of Parliament Dr. Wolf, AfD).
In terms of educational policy, this could mean in institutional terms: A single federal state under AfD leadership (or a government dependent on the AfD) can completely paralyze the KMK in its existing structure with a consistent obstructionist policy.
Saarland, as the current presidential state, should not reduce the upcoming KMK reform in 2024 to the deletion of a few committees, but should seriously consider the overdue departure from the unanimity principle.
Not only in the KMK, but in many committees decisions are made unanimously.
Research funding is also partly a matter for the states, for example at the German Research Foundation, where the states contribute 30 percent of the budget.
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The AfD actors in the countries
In Saxony, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the AfD as firmly right-wing extremist in December.
The Saxony regional association is currently led by Jörg Urban.
“Too many foreigners among the students […] are taking the know-how back home with them – we simply cannot afford to educate the whole world,” said Urban in the “Saxony as a State of Science” debate on December 14th .
Rolf Weigand is the education and science policy spokesman and has been a member of the AfD since 2013.
According to the website, the engineer with a doctorate is also managing director of the AfD Saxony.
The election program, based on the AfD's basic program, calls for the preservation of a multi-tiered school system, a "master instead of a master's degree", the "impartation of German cultural assets" and "neutrality in schools should be restored".
René Aust is responsible for science in Thuringia's AfD
In Thuringia, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the AfD as definitely right-wing extremist.
René Aust is spokesman for European, social and university policy issues for the AfD Thuringia.
He is in third place on his party's list for the next European elections.
Aust was a member of the SPD until 2013, but there they missed “the lessons from the Chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder a.
D. with the analyzes of Dr.
Thilo Sarrazin,” writes Aust about himself.
Germany must remain an industrial country if it wants to be wealthy.
This requires a better location policy with investments in economically viable education and research as well as tax cuts.
“On the other hand, we need to protect the welfare state from mass immigration and protect our people in difficult social conditions from wage and rent competition.”
There are hardly any statements made by Aust on questions of science and research.
The “Science” program item in Thuringia contains the well-known positions from the party’s basic program.
No chair of the committee in Brandenburg
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution of the State of Brandenburg classifies the Junge Alternative Brandenburg (JA Brandenburg) as a confirmed right-wing extremist effort.
Theoretically, the Committee for Science and Research in the Brandenburg state parliament would already be chaired by the AfD.
Since there was no agreement on a representative in September 2019, this position is vacant.
The science committee is led by the deputy chairman, the SPD politician Erik Stohn (SPD).
Our request about the AfD's current priorities for science and research specifically in Brandenburg was not answered.
The election program for the state elections in 2019 adopts the positions from the AfD's basic program.
This is how science reacts
In the “Cosmopolitan Thuringia” campaign, in which 2,933 organizations and people from the Free State are campaigning for a cosmopolitan and diverse Thuringia, not only charities, trade unions and universities are involved, but also Helmholtz and Fraunhofer Institutes.
“We are following current developments closely,” says Fraunhofer President Holger Hanselka.
He is deeply concerned about the rise of anti-democratic currents, right-wing extremism and the spread of racist positions in parts of the public: “The science system must be defended against ideologically motivated restrictions, also in order to produce the innovations that we need to meet the great challenges of our time encounter."
The Helmholtz Association explains that innovative research and development is inconceivable without a cosmopolitan, pluralistic society.
“We need a wide variety of talents and ideas in order to solve the great challenges of our time together.” MPG President Patrick Cramer also describes this in an article for the FAZ.
Katja Becker, President of the DFG, gets specific.
“We view the current domestic political radicalization with great concern and are considering how we can show, perhaps together with others, in the run-up to this year's state elections in the new federal states, but of course not as an election campaign, how important science and free thinking and speech are for an open society and our democracy.”