The reason for the cuts is the traffic light government’s austerity measures, which affect many program funds that were previously available for so-called democracy or integration projects.
Berlin. – The federal government wants to massively cut the funds for the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb). This emerges from the budget draft of the Federal Ministry of the Interior by Nancy Faeser (SPD), as reported by Spiegel. Accordingly, the budget of the bpb should shrink by 20 million euros – from currently around 96 million to around 76 million euros in 2024. That would be a reduction of around a fifth.
The background to the cut is the austerity course of the traffic light coalition, which wants to comply with the debt brake anchored in the Basic Law again this year. Finance Minister Christian Lindner specified this, and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz also supports this goal. Many ministries therefore have to make do with less money. Since no savings should be made on investments and the use of large amounts of money is stipulated by law, the ministers have comparatively little leeway. The cuts affect many program funds that were previously available for so-called democracy or integration projects.
Missteps of the bpb
The bpb, which is actually supposed to promote the political and democratic awareness of the population, has repeatedly attracted attention in the past with questionable statements. In 2021, for example, a bpb post on social media caused severe criticism in which it referred to Germans as “potatoes”. “Devaluing an entire population group as ‘potatoes’ because of their origin or skin color is totally unacceptable and encourages the division of our society. The Federal Agency for Civic Education in particular should show particular sensitivity here,” said the then Hamburg CDU leader Christoph Ploß Bild-Zeitung.
At the beginning of 2021, the bpb also made headlines with a dossier on left-wing extremism. It said: “In contrast to right-wing extremism, socialist and communist movements share the liberal ideas of freedom, equality, fraternity – but interpret them in their own way.” After heavy criticism, the text was changed.
AfD filed a supervisory complaint against bpb boss
Only in July of this year did the bpb make another misstep, according to the AfD. After the victorious district election in Sonneberg, bpb boss Thomas Krüger said Editorial network Germany: “Here comes a party that systematically denounces the upcoming transformation into the 21st century and advocates the preservation of a world that never existed.” The AfD stands for “racist, anti-Semitic, misanthropic positions”, led he off He warned against seeing the election of the party as a protest, but rather “parts of society have established certain positions that are unacceptable and incompatible with democratic principles”. The two AfD board members of the bpb, Götz Frömming and Martin Erwin Renner, then filed a complaint against Krüger and requested a special meeting of the board for September. “The disparagement of the AfD and its voters is not part of the statutory mandate of the Federal Agency,” explained Frömming. “The office of President of the bpb is subject to a special role model function in order to safeguard the duty of neutrality.”
The bpb may only engage in political education, but not distort party competition. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, to whom the complaint was filed, must therefore explain “how she plans to prevent the authorities under her authority from inadmissibly interfering with the constitutionally protected party competition,” demanded Renner.
2023-08-07 08:44:29
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