All parties are counting on an AfD campaign against the Amadeu Antonio Foundation!

This article first appeared at Belltower News.

On Wednesday evening, a motion by the far-right AfD to stop funding the Amadeu Antonio Foundation was debated in the Bundestag. Democratic politicians from CDU/CSU, Greens, SPD, and Left responded. The foundation is now considering legal action. 

Far-right Attack

On November 11, the AfD submitted a motion in the German Bundestag demanding the cessation of state funding for the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. The motion marks the temporary peak of a campaign against the foundation, but also against civil society and especially against everything that stands in the way of the AfD.

This is also evident in the debate in the Bundestag. The AfD MP Stephan Brandner, whose immunity as a Bundestag member has been revoked multiple times due to investigations and who made headlines in 2020, because he allegedly locked himself in an ICE toilet after a train conductor asked him to wear a face mask, was the first speaker on the agenda item “End government funding of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation from federal funds.”

Brandner criticized, referring to Green and Left MPs, the “concentrated left-woke less democratic elite” and asked the plenary if anyone could name measures by the foundation that had “made Germany a little better.” Promptly, Konrad Körner from the CSU responded: “How do you find the campaign ‘Now you! We together.’ against anti-Semitism and Jew-hatred?” Körner refers to the current Action Weeks against Anti-Semitism and asks whether Brandner does not believe that a campaign against anti-Semitism advances Germany? A coherent response from the AfD MP remains absent.

Brandner repeats his usual accusations against the foundation and its founder, Anetta Kahane, all of which have long been refuted. For example, here, here, and here.

It seems to have been understood in the Bundestag that the AfD motion is just the latest attempt to silence the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, as well as all those who oppose racism, anti-Semitism, and right-wing extremism.

Marvin Schulz (CDU): “Funding civil society engagement is not a circuit”

This has also become known in those factions that sometimes criticize the work of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation themselves. Marvin Schulz (CDU) also clearly affirms his support for promoting democracy: “Funding civil society engagement is not a circuit that we can switch off at will just because we don’t like the light.” The MP supports the review of funding programs announced by Education Minister Karin Prien (CDU), but also says: “Criticism yes, control of course, but pre-judgment not.”

Misbah Khan (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen): “The AfD faction declares the entire democratic civil society an enemy.”

Also clear is Misbah Khan from the Greens: “The attempt to silence independent organizations follows a clear pattern: the authoritarian attempt to attack our freedom and democracy. And with this motion, the AfD faction declares the entire democratic civil society an enemy.” Because the campaign of the AfD and also this motion are actually just the first step: “What is demanded from the foundation today by the AfD could just as well be demanded tomorrow for other organizations: for the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, for the Rural Youth, for the Central Council of Jewish Women and Men, for the Farmers’ Association, or for the Anne Frank Center,” says Khan. “And it will not stop until all voices that are unwelcome have been silenced. That is the authoritarian pattern we must not allow in this country.”

Khan emphasizes how important the foundation’s work is, and mentions, amid sneering interjections from the AfD faction, also the work of the Action Weeks against Anti-Semitism, which take place annually around November 9: “And given that one can accuse the AfD of many things, but certainly not that they do not understand the importance of historical dates, this attack on an organization that is currently committed to the Action Weeks against Anti-Semitism in November is hardly to be surpassed in malevolence and inhumanity,” says Khan.

Felix Döring (SPD): “You are securely right-wing extremist.”

Felix Döring (SPD) makes it clear that the AfD is also attacking the Amadeu Antonio Foundation because it has been warning about right-wing extremism and its effects for years: “The foundation has long and clearly identified what the constitutional protection agency has now also confirmed some time later: They are securely right-wing extremist. The greatest danger to our society comes from right-wing extremism. By the way, this is also shared by large parts of the population.”

The revealing interjection by Beatrix von Storch, granddaughter of Hitler’s finance minister and simultaneously the party’s anti-Semitism commissioner: “Less and less!” In light of the figures from the current Mitte study, which indeed shows increasing approval rates for right-wing extremist positions, Döring calls for expanding rather than stopping the foundation’s funding.

The MP also makes clear: “The funded projects are publicly accessible, they are professionally reviewed, and they are scientifically evaluated.” Döring emphasizes: There is no neutrality when it comes to hostility towards people and right-wing extremism. “Democrats cannot be neutral towards right-wing extremism, just as firefighters cannot be neutral towards a house fire. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation works day by day to reduce fires, while you work day by day to start the next one.”

Clara Bünger (The Left): “The AfD is the greatest danger to our society”

The Left MP Clara Bünger also states clearly: The AfD incited against minorities, asylum seekers, and people with a migration background, spreading anti-Semitism and racism, relativizing the crimes of National Socialism, and employing organized right-wing extremists as staff, even convicted violent offenders. The AfD is the greatest danger to our society. That is precisely why supporting the Amadeu Antonio Foundation is so important, “because democracy is not available for free.”

The AfD “fears organizations like the Amadeu Antonio Foundation because they do what you fear most: educate, document, and contradict,” says Bünger.

Konrad Körner (CSU): “Six out of six!”

Konrad Körner from the Union faction pointed out in his reply to the “absurd motion” that there are ideological differences between his party and the foundation. Nevertheless, he explicitly emphasized their important work. The AfD’s motion mentions a “controversial foundation,” but, according to Körner, a foundation can be “as controversial as it wants.” The Union faction can also criticize without questioning its fundamental importance.

Then he directly addressed the AfD: Can they make concrete statements about which projects have actually gone wrong? “Nothing!” says Körner. The party has not even made that effort. His conclusion: “Six out of six!”

Unwanted critics should be silenced

The second AfD speaker demanding the cessation of funding for the Amadeu Antonio Foundation is Gereon Bollmann. Bollmann has mostly made headlines for emphasizing further contact with a former colleague in custody, the suspected right-wing terrorist Birgit Malsack-Winkelmann. According to media reports, the MP sought a permanent visiting permit for the former Bundestag member in custody, who is accused of membership in a terrorist organization. As part of the Reichsbürger group around Heinrich XIII. Prince Reuss, Malsack-Winkemann is alleged to have planned a coup to overthrow the federal government and pushed for the rapid implementation of the plans. After the coup, the former judge was supposed to become Minister of Justice.

Bollmann’s role in the debate seems to be to build bridges to the CDU/CSU faction. He repeatedly tries to incite conservatives to outrage. After all, the foundation even funded a project involved in mobilizing for Merz-critical “cityscape” demonstrations, although the initiative only listed the foundation’s address in the imprint. “Dear colleagues from the Union, I’m addressing you now: Isn’t it an act of self-respect to exclude people who express themselves like that from public funding?” asks Bollmann.

The MP’s criticism of government actions is meant to have direct, negative consequences. Unintentionally, Bollmann makes his understanding of democracy clear. According to his argument, civil society criticism of the chancellor and CDU/CSU positions should not lead to a debate, but rather the governing party should simply silence unwelcome critics by cutting funding directly.

Attack on Belltower.News

A central part of Bollmann’s speech was the attempt to discredit Belltower.News. AfD and other right-wing extremists have used the journalistic platform of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation as an enemy image for years because they regularly report on right-wing networks, strategies, hate campaigns, and disinformation, including about the AfD and its political and journalistic environment.

Bollmann referred to a case where a former Belltower author “celebrated” an attack on an AfD politician. However, he omitted that in such cases, the AfD usually refers to individual private social media posts that are in no way connected to the editorial team, neither in content nor in timing. The party deliberately blurs the line between personal online communication and journalistic work to discredit media. He also referenced a Belltower.News author who is at the center of a right-wing defamation campaign. He indirectly accused her of being a “enemy of the constitution.”

While politicians from the Union to the Left emphasized the central role of the foundation in the fight against right-wing extremism, anti-Semitism, and racism, the AfD used the debate to once again agitate against civil society engagement and delegitimize democratic actors.

Amadeu Antonio Foundation considers legal action

Managing Director Timo Reinfrank announced that they are examining legally “how we can proceed against individual false and damaging statements as well as publications by the AfD faction.” At the same time, he expressed encouragement from the united stance of the democratic factions, which clearly support the foundation and other civil society actors: “This clear commitment is an important signal for us and for everyone engaged in democracy in Germany.”

Helge Lindh: “You are not alone, and we will not leave you alone”

At the end of the debate, Helge Lindh (SPD) again emphasizes: “Because in this Putin-Russia, the land of your wet dreams, civil society has been largely shut down. That is exactly your wishful thinking.” And he continues: “It was the Amadeu Antonio Foundation that was among the first institutions to point out pro-Russian narratives among you and your disinformation policies. That is exactly what you are doing with your discrediting and defamation campaign against the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. Ultimately, you want to crush the entire democratic civil society.”

Lindh highlights the importance of partisanship and neutrality in civil society: “Civil society is not against the AfD and partisan in the political competition for other parties; no, it is partisan in the competition of democratic attitudes against anti-democratic, unconstitutional attitudes.”

The MP makes it clear: democrats from all camps support civil society and the foundation: “You are not alone, and we will not leave you alone. Because you have not left behind those who suffered from anti-Semitism early on, already in the early 2000s. And we will not leave you alone because you have named racism where we failed to do so.”

Article image: Christoph Soeder/dpa; 17.05.2024, Berlin: Interjection by AfD MP Beatrix von Storch.