On the attacks by the Green Party on the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (DES)
explains DES chairwoman Erika Steinbach:
The absurd accusations and insinuations made by Green politicians and their demands for an obvious „Lex Erasmus Foundation“ are infamous and completely unfounded.
The Greens are now calling for a foundation law, oh wonder. They rejected the AfD's 2018 draft bill together with all other parliamentary groups. It is quite obvious that this project is now intended solely to permanently exclude the DES from any funding. The Green Party's scientific spokesperson did not hesitate to openly reveal the ulterior motive behind such a law with his defamatory statements:
„A publicly funded institution that promotes racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny and homophobia under the guise of intellectualism would be a heavy burden on our democracy. Therefore, it must be ensured that the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation does not receive any public funds in the future.
Our foundation includes homosexuals, people with a migrant background, and the chairperson is clearly a woman in my person. As a long-standing member of the DIG, anti-Semites would have no place in the DES under my leadership. In addition, the deputy chairperson of the Jews in the AfD, a former member of the Central Council of Jews, is a member of our board of trustees.
In our work, we are bound by the legal principles not only in accordance with our statutes, but especially in our daily work. Our congress on freedom of expression in accordance with Article 5 of the Basic Law made this very clear.
The Greens clearly want the foundations of the established parties to continue to have exclusive access to the enormous, completely inflated funding pot of 600 million euros.
Now, panic over the serious, value-based work of our foundation is driving the Green Party to seek legal regulation. However, it is clear that this is being done against an anti-constitutional backdrop.
The 1986 ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court expressly stipulates that all major political movements must be taken into account in such funding.
We will enforce this with all legal means at our disposal.