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Society is in a state of political movement; on the one hand, ideas that were previously only circulating in left-wing groups are becoming dominant, for example in immigration, EU or language policy.

At the same time, right-wing extremists spread fear and terror with racist murders.

In addition to surveillance by the security authorities, the state has for many years been countering right-wing extremism with prevention projects in which activists and social workers offer dropout projects, training courses and information campaigns.

An old conflict between the government factions of the SPD and the Union has now broken out around the recent expansion of these projects.

The black-red cabinet recently decided to invest another billion in the fight against right-wing radicalism, which is to be made available for dozens of projects by 2024.

The majority should go to the anti-extremism program “Live Democracy”, which has existed since 2014 and whose funds are to be increased by a further 550 million by 2024.

To this end, a so-called “Democracy Promotion Act” was passed by the cabinet and a corresponding draft of the key points was initiated by the SPD-led Family Ministry and the Union-led Interior Ministry, which was to be decided shortly before the end of the joint term of office.

Dispute over the bill

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On Tuesday, the Union parliamentary group informed the leading Family Minister Franziska Giffey (SPD) that nothing would come of it.

The draft law could be "not supported overall" for several reasons, so please "refrain from referring to the cabinet".

Giffey immediately announced that he would hold on to it and called on the Union faction to give up "their blockade stance".

"We cannot complain to Hanau, Halle and Chemnitz on the one hand and then pinch the necessary and long overdue democracy promotion law on the other," said Giffey.

Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) also reacted irritably.

"If you are serious about fighting right-wing extremism and racism, you have to act".

The SPD spokeswoman for strategies against right-wing extremism, Susann Rüthrich, announced: “We expect the key points for the law to be debated in the coming cabinet meeting.

It's late, but not too late! "

Mathias Middelberg, the domestic policy spokesman for the Union faction, justified the opposite

WELT explains why his parliamentary group will not agree: “From our point of view there is no compelling need for a corresponding funding law.” Since 2015, extensive measures in the areas of promoting democracy, shaping diversity and preventing extremism have been funded as part of the federal program “Live Democracy”.

In 2021 alone, federal funding will amount to 150 million.

Euros have been made available.

The second funding phase of the program will also run until 2024. So it cannot be said that without the law no more projects would be possible.

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"It was therefore clear from the start that it would depend very much on the concrete form of the legislative project," said Middelberg.

In any case, the current version of the key issues paper could not be approved.

“In particular, it does not contain the written commitment of the grant recipients to the principles of the free democratic basic order of the Federal Republic of Germany, which we demanded.

Such a commitment should actually be a matter of course. "

Commitment to the free and democratic basic order

Behind this is an old conflict between the SPD and the Union, which is to be demanded of the activists and social workers, who often come from the left milieu.

Former Family Minister Kristina Schröder (CDU) introduced a so-called “extremism clause” in 2011.

Only those could be supported with state money, who committed themselves in writing to the free-democratic basic order.

At the time, Schröder argued that it was ultimately about state funds to strengthen democracy.

“It is not enough to know what someone is against.

You also have to know what it stands for. "

In 2014, at the urging of the SPD, the black-red coalition agreed to abolish this clause.

Instead, it has since been stipulated in the grant notices to the many initiatives that no tax money may go to extremist organizations or people - without the local projects themselves having to sign.

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A huge infrastructure has been built over the last few years: more than 500 projects are funded by the federal program “Live Democracy”, 16 “state democracy centers” with an annual budget of almost 20 million euros have been expanded for networking.

These centers are supposed to promote the democratic culture, serve as contact persons for the actors in the program “Live Democracy” and promote “the design of a sustainable advisory, information and networking structure at the state level”.

The effectiveness of the prevention programs is controversial

But many of the more than 500 projects are about to be canceled every four years because they have to repeatedly apply as a model project.

The employed social workers and activists regularly fear for their continued employment and have to look around for employment in other political projects.

This uncertainty should be remedied by the “Democracy Promotion Act” through “longer-term and age-independent project funding” of measures “to strengthen democracy, prevent extremism and shape diversity”.

Critics in the Union fear that many projects will continue in the long term, although it will be difficult to determine their usefulness.

In fact, it is controversial to what extent prevention programs against extremism are at all effective.

Significant evidence that right-wing, left-wing or Muslim youths have been prevented from sliding into radical groups through such projects is hardly available.

The vast majority of these publicly funded activities deal with the fight against right-wing extremism.

The main difficulty is that right-wing extremists rarely take part in it.

If you take a closer look at the projects listed on the Family Ministry's website, you will come across training courses on multiculturalism or other, in the broader sense, left theories.

For example, the “Tübingen aktiv gegen Discrimination” project will receive 113,000 euros from the “Live Democracy” program this year a project on Afro-black feminism will be offered.

The “Diversity in a Circle” project in Offenbach am Main receives 125,000 euros annually.

Among other things, a square meter floor sticker will be affixed by the project, which will draw attention to "the topic of everyday racism".

The inscription “Too many just pass me over” should make people in the Hessian district “aware of their prejudices, because racism begins with prejudice”.

Most recently, a “democracy conference” was invited to the town hall to discuss “exciting and diverse projects”.

Concrete evidence of actual social work with extremists is difficult to find, but there are a lot of vague networks and training courses for activists against extremism.