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“You can’t create a defensive democracy by financing homogeneous left-wing ideology”

The Democracy Promotion Act, with which the federal government wants to strengthen civil society projects on democracy promotion, diversity design, extremism prevention and political education, was controversial from the start.

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“You can’t create a defensive democracy by financing homogeneous left-wing ideology”

The Democracy Promotion Act, with which the federal government wants to strengthen civil society projects on democracy promotion, diversity design, extremism prevention and political education, was controversial from the start. The FDP is demanding substantial improvements to the law presented by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) and Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens).

On Monday, the family committee invited to an expert hearing. And pre-release opinions suggest the law will continue to be a source of debate.

The aim of the law is to strengthen democracy in Germany and to promote initiatives that work against extremism and group-related enmity in the long term - and not just for a limited period of time, as has been the case in the "Living Democracy" program so far. There is no fundamental doubt about that. But it depends on the concrete design of the law and the previous funding practice.

Criticism also comes from one of the most prominent figures in the counter-extremism field, psychologist and author Ahmad Mansour. “As someone who works in the field of democracy education and counter-extremism, I would like to emphasize very clearly that funding civil society activities in the field of counter-extremism is extremely important and necessary right now,” writes Mansour in his statement. The people who worked in this field deserved a “clear and secure perspective”.

However, democracy education should not be “an exclusive club”. "Unfortunately, that has become a reality in recent years," Mansour said. There is “no transparent regulation and communication” about which project sponsors receive funding and which do not. Rather, he has the impression that, especially in the areas of combating Islamism and racism, the chance of funding “depends on the political agenda of the ruling parties and not on which measures have proven to be particularly successful in the context of scientific evaluations”.

The psychologist cites Islamism as an example. Many projects he has come into contact with in recent years have claimed that experiences of discrimination are the key factor leading to radicalization. With this view, however, many other factors are completely ignored because they are politically uncomfortable or ideologically undesirable: "Patriarchal structures, insistence on the victim role, the many conservative understandings of Islam, immaturity, parallel societies are other important factors that can lead to the radicalization of young people.”

In Hamburg, Islamists called for a demonstration. 3500 people followed. "The organization is highly problematic," says extremism researcher Ahmad Mansour. They radicalize young people. The Federal Minister of the Interior was overwhelmed.

Source: WORLD

The absence of an extremism clause – i.e. an obligation for publicly funded organizations to commit to basic democratic principles and to act according to them – has meant that both Islamist and left-wing extremist actors have enjoyed public funding for their projects in recent years. This is not support for a well-fortified democracy, but an attack on it.

"You will not create a defensive democracy by financing a homogeneous left-wing, partly identity-political ideology that tries by all means to criminalize, defame or cancel and hide other opinions and perspectives," criticized Mansour. Rather, the law must enable a platform that promotes a competition of ideas in order to get people excited about democracy and win them over. "It must not create a cartel of like-minded people that uses its methods to damage democracy and promote inequality."

Mansour called on the Bundestag to make corrections and ensure that only associations and people have the opportunity to finance their work through the program "if they themselves follow and live the basic principles of democracy".

Ali Ertan Toprak, Federal Chairman of the Kurdish Community in Germany, was similarly critical. "Not everything that is well meant is also well done," writes Toprak, who is a CDU member, in his statement. Political education in Germany has so far been guaranteed by a tried and tested system that ensures ideological neutrality and social plurality. "If the state now wants to support private and civil society organizations with large sums of money in political education, then it should be possible to check very well whether these organizations really achieve the desired goals or even want to achieve them at all."

For this reason, Toprak demanded that the law already state that the applicants and their partners are committed to the free-democratic basic order. If carriers refuse to sign a clause that commits them to the Basic Law, they are “not only questionable as recipients of state funding, but completely out of the question for any form of extremism prevention”.

"Kick-off Politics" is WELT's daily news podcast. The most important topic analyzed by WELT editors and the dates of the day. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, among others, or directly via RSS feed.

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