The Saarland state parliament has spoken out against the federal program “Democracy Lives!” realignment planned by Federal Family Minister Karin Prien (CDU). The program has established itself as a central element of democracy promotion, according to a declaration adopted by the absolute SPD majority in the state parliament. The “weakening of proven structures” would be “the wrong signal”.
In Saarland, the removal of federal funding has resulted in the loss of more than €416,000 in support. “We want the announced cessation of projects to be reversed. We want political education and extremism prevention to be maintained at least at the current level,” said Réka Klein (SPD). The representative Raphael Schäfer (CDU) pointed to the Federal Court of Auditors, which had issued strong criticism of a “jumble of projects” under “Democracy Lives!” “Therefore, a restart of the funding program is necessary.”
Projects expire at the end of the year
With the decision, the state government led by Prime Minister Anke Rehlinger (SPD) was urged to “advocate at the federal level for reliable and long-term funding of successful democracy-promotion initiatives.” The federal program “Democracy Lives!” has been in operation since 2014 and this year has about €190 million available to fund associations and projects nationwide. According to the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, up to now 360 Partnerships for Democracy and about 3,000 projects or initiatives have been funded. Prien has announced that funding for around 200 of the total several hundred projects will end at year-end and that the grant guidelines should be revised. The program is viewed in her ranks as too left-leaning.
Recently, Federal Family Minister Prien was criticized for cuts to queer projects — for example at the Lambda youth network or at the CSD Rathenow.
Marcy Ellerton
