Doubts about our constitutional state.
The German Bundestag and the Federal Government are equally ignoring the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court in favour of the AfD and its foundation.
Erika Steinbach, chairwoman of the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation, explains:
„In its ruling of 22 February 2023, the Federal Constitutional Court made it clear that the refusal to grant state funding to the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (DES) from 2019 onwards is unconstitutional and violates the principle of equal treatment.
It also noted that there is a „need for special legal provisions governing state funding that has a significant impact on the equal participation of parties in political competition“. The Federal Constitutional Court thus called for a law on foundations and made it clear that future state funding of political foundations would only be possible on such a basis.
To date, there is not even a draft bill on federal funding for political foundations, let alone an actual law. If this deficit is not remedied immediately, no funds should be paid out to any political foundations.
Furthermore, in a letter dated 2 June 2023, the Federal Government unlawfully refused to pay out the state subsidies that had been unlawfully withheld from our DES in accordance with the Constitutional Court ruling. This is contrary to the expectations of the Federal Constitutional Court, which optimistically stated in its ruling that „it is not apparent that the respondent (i.e. the Federal Government) will not respond to the finding that the applicant's rights have been violated“. Unfortunately, this positive assessment has not been fulfilled. It is disturbing that the German federal government is not even deterred from its unlawful behaviour by a ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court and continues to strictly refuse to pay out the funds.
Taken together, these two incidents demonstrate a degree of ignorance towards applicable case law that must raise doubts about the rule of law in our country.“