Live democracy

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Live Democracy (proper spelling Democracy Live!, Full title Live Democracy! - Active against right-wing extremism, violence and misanthropy ) is a funding program of the Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ), which was launched in 2014 by Manuela Schwesig .

background

The BMFSFJ supports since 2001 various programs for extremism - prevention . From January 2015, live democracy joined the federal programs promoting tolerance - strengthening competence and the initiative strengthening democracy - which expired at the end of 2014 .

With the project, the BMFSFJ wants to support civil society engagement for democracy and against extremism. Projects from organizations, initiatives, associations and citizens are funded. To live democracy include projects at local, regional and national level.

development

The kick-off conference of Living Democracy took place in February 2015. The funding budget for 2015 was 40.5 million euros. This increased the number of Local Action Plans (LAP) "for democratic action and against right-wing extremist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic tendencies" from 170 to 220. In addition, the funding of " model projects against Islamophobia , antiziganism , anti-Semitism , homophobia and transgender - discrimination and for the development of democracy in rural areas" has been expanded by increasing the funding grants from previously up to 50% to up to 80% with a total budget of 6 million euros. the project costs have increased. In addition, democracy centers in the federal states for “networking and promoting mobile counseling and victim counseling” should be funded with up to 400,000 euros.

The German Engagement Prize, sponsored by the BMFSFJ, also received a higher budget to award 5,000 euros in various categories such as "Creating opportunities", "Overcoming borders", "Preserving life", "Connecting generations" and "Strengthening democracy" .

In 2016 the budget was increased to 50 million euros and then doubled to 104.5 million euros in 2017. In cooperation with Scholz & Friends , a large-scale advertising campaign was started in 2017 to make living democracy better known and to promote democratic engagement.

In 2018, the total budget was 120.5 million euros and over 600 projects were funded. The total budget for 2019 is 115.5 million euros.

Secret checks by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

In 2018, Demokratie Leben came under fire when it became known that the BMFSFJ had secretly screened a total of 51 project sponsors by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution .

Evaluation

In 2019 the program was evaluated by the branch office of the German Youth Institute in Halle an der Saale , which has also been accompanying the previous programs since 2001.

Intentions to cut back and restructuring

At the end of September it became known in the media that Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Federal Minister for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth Franziska Giffey were planning a cut of 8 million euros. In addition, many successful projects that have been established for years can no longer be funded, as the funding for these so-called model projects must expire according to the current legal provisions. Franziska Giffey is therefore calling for a so-called democracy promotion law , which has so far been rejected by the CDU / CSU.

After the murders in Halle and Hanau

On October 9, directly after the murder attack in Halle , Scholz and Giffey then announced that they would withdraw the planned cut for one year and continue at the same level as in 2019 for the next five years. The CDU / CSU is said to have declared that it is ready to discuss the envisaged democracy promotion law. However, since many established and successful programs were not extended any further and are now about to end, 120 civil society organizations and around 120 supporters, led by the Federal Working Group on Democracy Development (BAGD) , wrote a joint open letter to Franziska Giffey.

Even after the attack in Hanau in 2020 , the so-called “promotion of democracy” was discussed again; a possible law to enable permanent funding for democracy projects had been blocked by the CDU / CSU parliamentary group .

criticism

Markus Wehner criticized in 2017 in the FAZ after the G20 riots in Hamburg that there was too little funding for projects against left-wing extremism.

Audios

Video

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anett Baron: Minister Manuela Schwesig calls for more real recognition for volunteering. In: Berlin Week . March 10, 2015, accessed September 11, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Miriam Hollstein: Manuela Schwesig: "Left-wing extremism is an exaggerated problem" . Ed .: Die Welt . June 30, 2014 ( welt.de [accessed September 11, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Completed programs and initiatives. In: www.demokratie-leben.de. BMFSFJ, accessed September 11, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b Elke Halefeldt: Living Democracy! - only: which exactly? In: heise.de. April 5, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Federal program 2015-2019 “Live Democracy! Active against right-wing extremism, violence and misanthropy ”. (PDF) In: BMFSFJ. 2014, accessed September 11, 2019 .
  6. ↑ “We are all Germany” - kick-off conference of the federal program “Live Democracy!” In: www.demokratie-leben.de. BMFSFJ, February 26, 2015, accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  7. ↑ German Engagement Award 2015: Online voting for audience award started. In: www.demokratie-leben.de. BMFSFJ, September 17, 2015, accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  8. ^ Astrid Geisler: Government doubles spending against the right. In: Zeit Online . March 19, 2016, accessed September 11, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Susanne Gaschke: Advertising campaign: 100 million euros for “Democracy Projects” - but what do they bring? Ed .: Die Welt. May 7, 2017 ( welt.de [accessed September 11, 2019]).
  10. ↑ Frank Zimmer: This is what the government campaign by Scholz & Friends looks like | W&V. In: Advertise & Sell . April 4, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Ingo Rentz: Scholz & Friends campaign “Live Democracy”: “Democracy is not a product that you buy”. In: Horizont.net . April 18, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2019 .
  12. ↑ a b Arne Semsrott: Family Ministry: If it becomes known how we work, we can no longer be trusted. In: netzpolitik.org . January 18, 2019, accessed September 11, 2019 .
  13. ^ Konrad Litschko: Funding of anti-right projects: only until the end of the year . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 21, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on September 11, 2019]).
  14. ↑ Defending Democracy. In: www.bundesregierung.de. Federal Government of Germany , June 27, 2019, accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Martin Kaul: Verfassungsschutz verified NGOs: Democracy projects through . In: The daily newspaper : taz . May 16, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on September 11, 2019]).
  16. ↑ Program evaluation project “Live Democracy!” Active against right-wing extremism, violence and misanthropy
  17. ↑ “Live Democracy!” Fatal signal to civil society , by Georg Sturm Neues Deutschland September 25, 2019
  18. ↑ Reduction of federal funds Civil society initiatives before the end , by Claudia van Laak, Deutschlandfunk October 7, 2019, audio version 1/2 year online
  19. ↑ project "power devil" threatened change in federal program Protestant Academy Berlin October 18, 2019, "Living Democracy" Protestant Academy completed project against hate speech Germany Radio News October 28, 2019
  20. ↑ Package against right-wing extremism "Extremely disappointed with her," says Ates about the minister , by Sabine Menkens Die Welt October 30, 2019
  21. ↑ Press release Over 115 million euros for “Live Democracy!” In 2020 , press release Federal Ministry for Family, Seniors, Women and Youth October 9, 2019
  22. ↑ Fight against extremism Federal government increases democracy program - for one year , by Ann-Katrin Müller, Der Spiegel October 9, 2019
  23. ↑ The budget for the “Live Democracy” program is to be increased , EPD October 9, 2019
  24. ↑ https://www.dissens.de/buendnis2019offenerbrief
  25. ↑ https://www.demokratie-mobilisiert.de/
  26. ↑ When “Live Democracy!” Is put to sleep, Katharina Debus in an interview with Radio LoRa
  27. ^ After the attack by Hanau Democracy Promotion on hold , Tagesschau (ARD) February 27, 2020
  28. ↑ Markus Wehner : Little helps little: Only one percent against left-wing extremism . Ed .: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed September 11, 2019]).