The CDU and SPD continue to argue about the establishment of a staff unit for political education within the education administration. In a heated plenary debate in the Berlin House of Representatives on Thursday, politicians from the coalition and opposition shouted at each other. In this matter, the fronts remain hardened – even within the coalition.
After Green parliamentary group leader Bettina Jarasch criticized the plans to establish the controversial staff office in her speech and accused the CDU of endangering the non-partisan nature of the state center for political education, CDU MP Danny Freymark responded. “You don’t know what the law is and we’re going to explain it to you now!” he explained in an exceptionally emotional speech to the staff office’s critics. He added: “Because we ask questions, they feel threatened. Obviously we have good reasons to look closely at certain things.”
Maja Lasic, education policy spokeswoman for the SPD parliamentary group, made the conflict within the coalition obvious right at the beginning of her speech. It is true that her group will support the Greens’ motion entitled “Prevent government access to political education!” – Preserve the independence of the Berlin State Center for Civic Education!” reject. However, “not out of conviction, but out of the self-image of political loyalty.”
There is applause from the AfD
“It is particularly difficult for us Social Democrats to act together in this case,” Lasic continued. Turning to her coalition partner, she said: “No microphone in the world is worth questioning the non-partisan nature of the state headquarters for a little support from within its own ranks.” Shortly afterwards, the CDU received support for its plans from, of all people, the AfD parliamentary group.
The reason for the dispute, which has been going on for months and has recently escalated, is the plans of the CDU-led education administration and its Youth State Secretary Falko Liecke (CDU). He wants to use a staff unit for political education that he and Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) introduced in the summer to review the work of the state headquarters and democracy promotion as a whole. Liecke wants to control the area, say critics. Günther-Wünsch recently rejected this.
SPD votes with opposition to CDU
An initial organizational decision for the staff office, which was available to Tagesspiegel, is an indication of this. It states that the state headquarters should have to implement “initiatives” from the staff office in the future. In addition, the annual program, the funding of individual sponsors and the creation of materials must “always be coordinated with the staff department in terms of subject matter and content” and “co-signed” by them. The state headquarters is also “obligated to provide information and report to the staff office”.
In the board of trustees at the state headquarters, which has equal representation and whose work, according to the Adult Education Act, is only intended to support, there was recently a showdown between the CDU and SPD. A resolution “on the importance of the independence of the state headquarters” introduced by Lasic and her parliamentary group colleague Marcel Hopp was passed against the votes of the CDU. This had previously failed with a motion to postpone due to the majority of the SPD, Greens and Left.
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It is unclear when and how the staff office will actually begin its work. This was originally supposed to happen in the fall. The names of the two designated heads of the facility, Michael Hammerbacher and Carl Chung, have been circulating for weeks. The Greens and the Left accuse the education administration of wanting to fill these positions at its own discretion due to the lack of an advertisement.
