Federal Minister for Family Affairs Karin Prien (CDU) has restructured the “Live Democracy!” program. put on the way. Initiatives for democratic coexistence, against extremism and for diversity must in future be subject to stricter requirements for funding and be prepared for a preliminary review by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This emerges from the calls for funding that the Family Ministry published in Berlin this week.
The program has been supporting projects to combat extremism, racism and anti-Semitism since 2014. This year around 190 million euros are available. Prien had announced that funding for around 200 projects would initially expire at the end of the year and that new conditions would be set. The minister considers the program to be left-leaning. According to their own statements, their goal in the restructuring is to promote more initiatives in the middle of society.
A call for funding for a “new federal program level” for organizations operating nationwide has now been published. This means organizations can express their interest in further government support, but now on this new basis. Several requirements for the initiatives are stricter than in the previous funding guidelines. For example, only “legal entities with recognized tax advantages” are allowed to apply. With exceptions, they have to raise ten percent of their budget themselves – so-called co-financing.
Two-stage review by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution
They also have to submit to the so-called Haber procedure. This is a two-stage review by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, named after a circular from the then State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Emily Haber, from 2017. According to this, if there is “sufficient reason,” a “review of findings relevant to the protection of the Constitution by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution” can follow, as it says in the funding call.
The use of the procedure at the German Bookstore Prize caused a stir in the spring. Three bookstores were denied the price based on the Haber process. Critics complained that the review was not transparent. It was never known what was going on against the bookstores.
The “Federal program level” is one of five program parts of “Live Democracy!”. According to the ministry, two of them – the local and the state level – should not be changed. Two new parts are to be added: A separate program level “Digital Space” is intended to counteract radicalization on the Internet; and a new “Special Integration and Participation Project” is intended to strengthen dialogue and cohesion.
