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Armin Laschet at the CDU party conference
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
The CDU thanks a total of 30 partners for their support on the homepage of their virtual party conference.
You can see the logo of the German Farmers' Association, that of the Association of Private Health Insurance, the Deutsche Post DHL Group is represented.
And the German Football League DFL is also there.
According to its statutes, this sees itself as politically neutral.
How she interprets this neutrality, said a DFL spokesman in response to a request from SPIEGEL: “The DFL has been represented at party conferences since 2015, in the interests of party political neutrality, this has happened at party conferences of various democratic parties - in the past the CDU as well as the SPD and Greens. «So you are mainly represented at party congresses by government parties, representatives of the opposition such as the FDP or the Left are not among them.
Stand at the SPD party conference cost 8,400 euros
»Usually (if there are no corona-related restrictions) it is essentially a physical stand at which the DFL provides information about the social commitment of the Bundesliga and the 2nd Bundesliga (including the DFL Foundation).
Such engagement takes place at the request of the parties, not at the initiative of the DFL, "said the DFL spokesman.
"Especially in these politically and socially polarized times, we also see this as a contribution towards the stability of our political system," says the DFL.
The DFL does not want to answer whether this contribution is also of a financial nature.
Even the CDU did not initially respond to SPIEGEL's request.
A look at the list of the “exhibitors and sponsors” of the SPD in 2019 provides more clarity about the nature of such support. Among other things, there is a stand rental for the “DFL-Deutsche Fußball Liga eV «.
Total income for the SPD: 8,400 euros.
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