On the recent attacks on the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation
explains chairwoman Erika Steinbach:
It is remarkable how flimsy the arguments are with which the assembled opponents of the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (DES) are trying, by hook or by crook, to prevent this foundation from receiving the public funding to which it is entitled. According to a 1986 ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court regarding public funding for party-affiliated foundations, „the principle of equality requires that all permanent, significant political movements in the Federal Republic of Germany be given appropriate consideration.“ It does not say that they can or may be considered, but clearly and unequivocally that they must be considered.
The AfD, which is close to the DES, now fulfils these basic requirements to a greater extent than almost any other party. Only the SPD and CDU/CSU, as the Union party, are represented in all federal states, the German Bundestag and the European Parliament, as has been the case with the AfD since 2017. The other parties are not represented in the respective parliaments of all federal states. And the FDP was not even represented in the German Bundestag in the penultimate legislative period.
The examples cited to prove that DES is not eligible for funding are all within the scope of permissible expressions of opinion under Article 5 of our Basic Law. Nothing makes this clearer than the Federal Government's response of 30 March 2021 to a minor interpellation from Alliance 90/The Greens, which states that DES is not under observation by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
According to our opponents, the problem with DES is „the staff“ with their allegedly „historically relativistic positions“. As evidence of this, they cite my statement regarding a school's refusal to admit the child of an AfD politician. Yes, there are associations that inevitably come to mind when, like me, you have been committed to Jewish causes for years and have dealt with the Holocaust and its history.
has been intensively engaged with.
When AfD children are denied admission to schools, when AfD politicians have their accounts terminated by their long-standing banks because they are members of the AfD, when restaurants that also rent their premises to the AfD are not only subjected to massive threats but also vandalism, when trade unions exclude or refuse to accept AfD members, when the organic supermarket Alnatura terminates a supplier's contract because the managing director is an AfD member, or when companies such as VW and AUDI refuse to sell their cars to the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, and when the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany calls for an election to be repeated because it was won with AfD votes, then it is not only me who is sounding the alarm bells. The disturbing associations then range between GDR or Nazi methods. Why? Because there is no outcry in the federal government and the public media, but rather secret joy.
As far as my statement on paedophiles is concerned, it is based on my many years of experience as human rights spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag. However, to interpret this as me putting all homosexuals in the paedophile corner is simply deliberate slander.
All political foundations must carry out their tasks in a politically open manner, according to the Federal Constitutional Court. That is a good thing. That is why there are quite different views on climate, energy and coronavirus measures among both our executive board and our board of trustees. Not everyone on our executive board has been vaccinated against coronavirus, for example, as I have. And that is their prerogative.
Our plurality reflects socio-political debates. But those who constantly talk about diversity across the country clearly cannot tolerate it when it comes to socio-political positions that differ from their own views.
All other political foundations will share a whopping €670 million in 2021. They are determined to prevent us from receiving the approximately €7 million we are entitled to for next year, even if it means resorting to deliberate lies and defamation.
Of course, the opponents of our foundation try to lump us in with the AfD. And in doing so, they like to cite individuals from this party who are not necessarily figureheads or who have even already been expelled. However, there are unsavoury individuals with whom one would not want to be associated in all, and I say quite deliberately in all, other parties as well. We are not the AfD, but we are naturally and wholeheartedly close to them. And as an independent, I publicly stand by my decision to vote for the AfD, as they are grounded in and act in accordance with the Basic Law. Otherwise, I would not vote for them, nor would I head this foundation. The AfD is taking legal action against the current measures taken by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, and with good reason. According to expert opinion, the federal government will lose after years of litigation. And that is a good thing!
Erika Steinbach
Chairperson