February 17, 2024 - 8:00am
Who will defend democracy against democracy’s defenders? This might sound like a joke, but it should be taken seriously in Germany. For over a year the country’s Greens and Social Democrats have been pushing for a law that would create mandatory government support for NGOs that engage in “supporting democracy, creating diversity, preventing extremism, and enhancing political education”.
On its surface, the law appears to be designed to ensure long-term funding for institutions outside of the government sector, but a closer look reveals that in its current form it would primarily support “progressive” causes. Left-of-centre NGOs would have a permanent advantage, and their public funding would be secured even with a conservative federal government in charge.
At this point, the initiative by Left-wing members of Germany’s ruling coalition to force taxpayers to finance Left-wing NGOs is only being kept at bay by the smallest partner in government, the Free Democrats. The party continues to point out that creating a law which targets Right-wing extremism but remains silent on other forms of radicalism, such as Islamism, is insufficient and demonstrably partisan.
This anti-democratic new law is not just a financial issue, but an attempt by the government to tilt the political playing field against anyone with Right-of-centre politics. Despite their hopes to the contrary, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the Greens know that banning the Alternative for Germany (AfD) — which would be the main target of this new law — is not going to happen. As a result, they are trying to outsource the suppression of their opponents to civil society — ideally via selective funding for government-approved NGOs.
Germany’s Minister for the Interior, Nancy Faeser, makes no secret of the intentions behind the law, saying that “no stone will remain unturned” in finding out who supports the New Right and that “those who mock the German state will feel the strength of the state”. The idea of making mockery of the government punishable by law, all in the name of “defending democracy”, is, to lean on a cliché, pretty Orwellian. What is the point of a liberal democracy if citizens are no longer permitted to criticise their politicians? Having led Germany down a path of sustained economic decline, the ruling coalition now wants to silence its opponents.
Faeser hopes to “discourage” support for Right-wing parties rather than punish it — for now, at least. Not even 24 hours ago a German bank refused to process an individual donation to the AfD, sending a letter to the person in question stating that the bank “does not engage in such transactions”. After this incident became public, the bank apologised and attributed the mistake “to human error”.
Trying to exclude those who have different views from public life, by way of a thinly veiled threat of debanking, is not democratic. Instead, it represents abandoning democracy for something closer to totalitarianism.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeI thought the German obsession with authoritarianism was meant to have been drained out of them along with ‘Prussian militarism’ in the 1940s.
The tired old notion about Germans and authority. Surely it must be obvious by now that the left-leaning liberal element in Western society has developed a distinctly authoritarian quality in its desire to re-engineer society along approved lines. Freedom for the politically privileged few – censorship and moral bullying for the rest of us.
It may be a tired old notion but that doesn’t make it untrue, nor does the undoubted fact that Left leaning Western society is doing the same.
True but a lazy, superficial and typically British observation.
I would be far more concerned about the success of influential activists in our midst. Their assumed moral authority has made them all but unstoppable. Let them point the finger of denunciation at our customs and institutions and watch the official backbone turn to jelly.
Perhaps, but isn’t the observation being ‘typically British’ using an idea of one national characteristic to debunk the idea of one pertaining to a different nation? Indeed, that typically British characteristic of flippant disregard for authoritarian state over-reach is precisely what the illiberal left seem hell bent on engineering out of us. And that certainly concerns me.
Please, spare me the debating society point-scoring. We get enough of that on a daily basis from Billy Bob!
Perhaps he’d spare you, if you had the foresight to spare others from “debating society point-scoring”?
Steady on, old chap. I was broadly agreeing with you.
You got it; hoist by his own petard (to use a French example!)
One of those strange expressions people trot out reflexively without thinking too much about the meaning!
This petard thingy is some sort of bomb used to blast open the gates of a city under siege – a kind of explosive battering ram so to speak. That would make the direction of force horizontal so I’m not sure how a chap could get “hoist” by one. Carelessly sitting on it while it is pointing upwards perhaps?
Strange too that the mishandling of this obscure military device has come to be used as a metaphor of being felled by your own means of attack.
Maybe one of UnHerd’s below-the-line scholars could proffer an explanation – hopefully in less than 1,000 words.
And answer came there none – except for a few downticks.
I despair.
Well, even after the Gestapo Oberherren had been strung up or banged up, the eastern provinces soon came up with the Stasi.
The same type of Internal State Security Service existed in all Communist Eastern European Countries.
Good point. I wonder if their notoriety is down to their exceptionally forensic sadism or merely because they operated in a partitioned Western European state and were therefore on the frontline of the Cold War.
Swapping one form of socialism (the national type) for another. The game is control of the troublesome masses whatever the name of the system.
All by themselves. Nothing to do with conquest by the Red Army, occupation by same and creation of a Communist puppet state. Btw, ever heard of the East German rebellion of 1951, brutally put down.
Evil and pernicious. These will be the foot soldiers who organize demonstrations and rallies to thwart the democratic process and undermine legitimate opposition. Doing it out in the open and bragging about it will be their undoing. Once the AfD gets in power, they need to eliminate all govt funding for NGOs. These groups will be working overtime to undermine their authority and being paid to do it.
But surely the lefty courts will thwart them like our lawyers here preventing deportations of even criminals to ‘protect their human rights ‘?
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/ontario-to-repeal-wage-cap-law-after-loss-in-appeal-court/ar-BB1i8OvL
And defund all soft BS university disciplines and research for the same reason. STEM science…..and technical colleges. Gender/race baiting they can do on their own time and money
In the UK the influence of political NGOs is ubiquitous and insidious. Several times a month, for example, the BBC Politics live programme hosts the CEO of a Remainer pressure group called Best for Britain without ever telling the audience that her organisation is funded by George Soros.
The Province of Alberta just announced a proposal to ban gender surgery for children – and actually create more support for adults – and require schools to inform parents when a child under 16 changes their pronouns.
This was immediately met with howls of outrage by all the rainbow organizations. All these groups are paid and funded by the feds so you basically have govt employees actively denouncing policy by another level of govt.
There were protests in Edmonton and Calgary. The one in Edmonton was less than 500 people. And all of it was organized and supported by govt funded employees and their friends and family. The media follows all this stuff breathlessly of course. It’s constantly in the news.
Yet poll after poll shows widespread support for these policies. And ridiculous poll numbers – 80% in favour of schools alerting parents to pronoun changes.
The war between the state and the family is a fight to the death.
Nowadays if you oppose massive illegal migration, you are pushed to the far right of the political spectrum, even if you feel more left from centre. With rising AFD and an increasingly unpopular coalition, it seems as if the SPD is trying to delegate to NGOs their department of propaganda.
Well they are not marching with a goose step anymore but some are still following uncritical polarizing ideologies.
Deleted as reposted below when comment disappeared after first posting.
The bizarre thing about this move of the so-called far Left is the determination to give cover and encouragement to perhaps the most monolithically patriarchal, conservative, imperialist and expansionist religion so that it will blossom and grow unfettered, untroubled by criticism or demands to abide by the rules they wish to inflict on everyone else. Are they unaware of history and contemporary realities to such an extent they they do not know that once hegemony is gained it is ruthlessly maintained thanks to their own code of religious laws? If so their ignorance is overwhelming. I just don’t get what kind of future they are hoping to build and bequeath to future generations. I’m all for people having freedom of conscience to worship or not as they believe but this plan of the German Left is completely deranged.
I first posted this reply to you about 20 minutes ago but it disappeared so I am reposting again in the hope that it doesn’t get removed once more. Can’t imagine why it was in the first place.
NGO’s run Ireland. Far left NGO’s who are well funded by taxpayers and foreign billionaires undermine the irish citizen. Their supporters turn up in droves to oppose every legitimate protest and drown out all opposition to leftwing causes. These “protests’ get all the attention from the MSM and these same Marxist heads have access to government and the media and academe far beyond their numbers. They are unelected and unaccountable and their pawprints are all over legislation and policy and are behind the unprecedented demographic change we have seen here in the last 20 years. They’re behind the hatespeech laws and of course the indoctrination of schoolchildren through their outreach into places of education. They are insidious and dangerous but seem to do their work unimpeded.
I once saw a YT video by a lefty researcher who decided to help some organisations during lockdown and, after noticing the same few names cropping up over and over again, dug down and down to discover a veritable spider’s web of interlinked NGOs, ‘charities ‘, media organisations, spontaneous (not) youth protest groups etc that all supported the same narratives (climate catastrophe, trans rights etc) and reinforced each other’s work in a shadow world, all leading back to a few very wealthy individuals.
How this would ever be unpicked now is beyond me until the whole edifice collapses thru its own hubris and stupidity.
It’s a giant ponzi scheme. We can start by not giving them govt funding.
They are doing it in Canada as well. We will have a Conservative government in the next two years, but I expect widespread undermining of the democratic will by NGOs, media and the courts.
As I write this comment (2:15pm, 17 Feb) a massive pro-Palestine protest is just starting out in central London. Estimated to comprise about 200-250,000 people they are marching on the Israeli embassy. This must be hugely intimidating for London’s Jewish community. Organised by leftwing activists, Islamic activists and assorted fellow travellers it inevitably gives the impression that there is widespread public opposition the fightback against Palestinian terrorism.
By the way, has there been any more news in the MSM on the fate of the October 7th hostages?
This is a three party coalition currently polling at about 20% IN AGGREGATE. That they feel entitled to push such projects tells you how removed from reality they are. And the shock and horror when this only pushes people with even moderate right of centre views towards the fringes is entirely predictable. Cue more virtue signalling marches “against the right”…
Don’t even get me started on the whole Correctiv article drama, or how plagiarism claims have been repurposed from a process to maintain academic hygiene to a cheap political weapon used to discredit ones opponents (totally alright and cheered on by the left wing press when Alice Weidel is the target, but completely unfair and cruel when the target is Alexandra Föderl Schmid of the Süddeutsche…)
Do these people have ANY powers of self refection at all?
Although the UK does not have a direct equivalent of the AfD, we already have a situation where the Government hands out taxpayers money to organizations that promote mass immigration and woke ideology. For example, the Taxpayers’ Alliance found that £7.7 million was given to organizations (Migrant Help, Stonewall, Refugee Action, Hope Not Hate and Instalaw) actively fighting against the Rwanda scheme. Furthermore, many lobbying organizations, masquerading as charities, are effectively subsidised by the taxpayer through the gift aid scheme.
Stonewall, every university, SOAS
There is an army of NGOs in the Darien Gap in Panama to help migrants start their journey to migrate to America – all funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Germans love discipline. From time to time it lets them down
Your statement is quite a cliche of modern Germany…
The problem with the current German left wing regime, like in many other Western countries, is the anxiety of the Left to lose power and trying to retain it by supporting NGOs to influence the public (Green Religion, DEI, Trans policies, migrants, etc.) The only strange exception seems to be the U.K., where the power seems to move to the Left. But then the Conservatives ruled more like a Social Democratic Party. Because of the UK’s voting system, the public has not much choice to vote for real change. Small parties sadly won’t count and many voters seem to choose to stay at home, so the end result will be more of the same or worse.
The strength of the state?
The motto of the Italian Fascists was everything for the state, nothing against the state and everything within the state.
The state which only exists where and in what it acts.
There was a Prussian law which made it a criminal offence to insult government officials. Now the Federal Republic must not be mocked.
This is not original with me, but a good quote/post:
It didn’t start with gas chambers.
It started with one party controlling the media. One party controlling the message. One party deciding what is truth. One party censoring speech and silencing opposition. One party dividing citizens into “us” and “them” and calling on their supporters to harass “them”.
It started when good people turned a blind eye and let it happen.
In Canada the government seized the bank accounts of those protesting against government over reach during Covid.
I expect most German voters will se this for what it is, a desperate attempt to fan the dying embers of progressive socialism. Trying to use taxpayer funds to do an end run around basic democratic rights is particularly odious. Who needs voters when you’ve got media, corporations and NGOs on the payroll?
Despite these efforts there are encouraging signs throughout the West that the progressive movement is in ebb tide. The UK may be an exception because it looks like the Not Really Conservatives are getting set to cede power to Not Really Labour. Elsewhere Trudeau has run out of funny socks. Biden can’t say hello without a teleprompter. The EU rightists are on the rise. The unaffordable Net Zero fantasy is losing support and the activist push to establish silly gender games into schools is dangerously close to foundering.
No surprise really. DEI was always a craven form of Divisiveness, Intolerance and Exclusion.