AfD | Party foundations must be constitutional

An exhibition by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) Photo: dpa/Patrick Pleul The SPD-affiliated Friedrich Ebert Foundation, the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the AfD's Erasmus Foundation are financially supported by the state of Brandenburg. The Heinrich Böll Foundation of the Greens and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation of the Left only receive a little money, but some basic support, even though these two parties have no longer been represented in the state parliament since the end of 2024. Although there is a BSW state parliamentary group, the BSW does not yet have a state foundation affiliated with it that could carry out political education work.

A guideline currently regulates who receives how much money. Professor Alexander Thiele noted on Wednesday that this procedure is unconstitutional. "But there was no plaintiff," said the public law expert at a hearing in the state parliament's interior committee. As in other federal states, the directive is now to be replaced by a law to finance party-affiliated foundations and local political associations. Thiele called it permissible to only support foundations in the future that not only do not fight the free-democratic basic order, but also actively support the constitution.

State parliament member Andreas Noack (SPD) said tax resources should not be thrown at enemies of the constitution. He and none of the experts heard said that the Erasmus Foundation could be affected. But that would probably be the case if the AfD remained classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. It was no coincidence that state parliament member Benjamin Filter (AfD) asked how it could be that a foundation was excluded from funding solely because of the classification of the associated party, even though the foundation itself was not in the sights of the secret service.

Interior Minister Jan Redmann (CDU) also asked. He wanted to know why the party's classification should not directly affect the foundation associated with it and justify its exclusion from funding? Professor Thiele replied that in his opinion the foundation should still have the opportunity to distance itself from the anti-constitutional positions of the respective party.

Political trends that have a lasting impact should generally be financed, reminded Hannah Schmid from the Institute for Public Law at the University of Cologne. Neither the old should be consolidated nor the new encouraged. The financing of the foundations affects the equal opportunities of the parties. That's why the state is not completely free to decide which foundations it pays for and which it doesn't, said Schmid. It is legally possible to exclude those who are not loyal to the constitution from donations. However, it could be a problem that the Interior Ministry should decide on, explained Schmid. It is better to avoid the appearance of political influence from the outset. Perhaps a committee of independent experts would be better suited than the Interior Ministry - an idea that BSW parliamentary group leader Niels-Olaf Lüders was immediately comfortable with.

Local political associations train local politicians not only from the party close to them - local politicians, of whom only comparatively few work full-time as mayors, district administrators and councilors.

Jens Graf from the Association of Cities and Municipalities reported that there is a high level of interest in these training courses among more than 6,000 city councilors and community representatives and many hundreds of volunteer mayors and mayors in Brandenburg. “On the whole, we as an association of cities and municipalities agree with the draft,” said Graf, assessing the state government’s draft bill, which still has to be passed by the state parliament. Graf only pointed out that perhaps not only the results of federal and state elections should be taken into account when determining the subsidies. If possible, the sometimes different results of local elections should also be taken into account.

“On the whole, we as an association of cities and municipalities agree with the draft.”

The local political association of the Brandenburg Left is called the Local Political Forum. After the party fell from 10.7 to just under three percent in the 2024 state election, the funding was reduced from 100,000 to 40,000 euros per year. If it had been based on the results of the 2024 local elections, the forum would be in a better position, because the party still achieved 7.8 percent in the local elections.

At the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Brandenburg, the funding amount fell from more than 110,000 euros per year to just around 23,000 euros.

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