Dear members, trustees, friends and supporters of our foundation,
there is some good news.
Our DES has been a member of the European Identity and Democracy Foundation (ID Foundation) since March this year.
This enables us to participate in both conferences and individual events in Germany and other EU countries under the umbrella of the ID Foundation with European funding.
The first congress serves as an opportunity to get to know each other better and takes place in Vienna.
This will be followed by another conference in Strasbourg and several individual events in Germany. We will inform you in good time so that you can register to attend.
We are keen to develop constructive cooperation with our friendly conservative allies within the EU and to network with them on fundamental issues that affect us all in the EU.
That was the good news.
The bad news is,
that we still have not received a single euro of the federal funds to which we are entitled. The federal government is neither prepared to pay out the funds that, according to the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, have been unlawfully withheld from us, nor has it included any subsidies for the DES in the draft budget for the coming year 2024. This means that we will once again have to engage our solicitor. It is impossible to estimate how long the proceedings will take.
For quite some time now, there has been no question of the rule of law and constitutional action in Germany, as we at DES are experiencing first-hand.
For our work as DES, this means that we can continue to carry out our tasks exclusively with the help of generous donors. It goes without saying that we, as the board, perform our duties on a voluntary basis anyway.
But anyone who thinks they can break us is sorely mistaken.
Stay tuned.
With warm and, despite everything, optimistic regards
Yours
Erika Steinbach
Chairperson