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Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus: “We must not leave our country to those who agitate against people and who want to make politics out of contempt for humanity.”
Photo: Kira Hofmann / photothek / IMAGO
Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) has called on the coalition partner FDP to give up reservations about the Democracy Promotion Act and to approve the project in the Bundestag. The task of politics is to support people who are committed to “defensive democracy, to living diversity and cohesion in our society,” said Paus after a meeting with representatives of the competence network for right-wing extremism prevention.
According to their ministry, members reported a variety of threats, targeted attacks by right-wing extremists, defamation campaigns and physical violence. The descriptions had “deeply moved and disturbed her,” explained Paus. "We must not leave our country to those who agitate against people and who want to make politics out of contempt for humanity."
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That's why she appeals "to the majority in the Bundestag and in particular to the FDP parliamentary group to clear the way and finally pass the Democracy Promotion Act." "It is no longer possible to explain to the public and civil society why the deliberations in the Bundestag are still ongoing are not completed.”
The Democracy Promotion Act is intended to establish for the first time a legal mandate for the federal government to promote democracy projects in the long term. To date, this has mostly been done on a voluntary basis - with no certainty for those affected as to whether the funding will still exist in the following year.
The draft for the new law was passed by the federal cabinet in December 2022. However, the FDP parliamentary group raised concerns last March before the first discussion in the Bundestag and called for clearer criteria as to what type of democracy commitment should be promoted.
Paus also suggested on Monday that, as in the previous legislative period, a cabinet committee should be set up to combat right-wing extremism and racism. He could develop “further measures” and be a further “answer to the fact that the population sees right-wing extremism as the greatest threat to our democracy.”
mfh/AFP