The City Council met: How a motion to promote democracy prompted an AfD councillor to launch into a tirade of insults

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It was, in fact, to be expected that this motion would provide an opportunity for an AfD city councillor such as Roland Ulbrich to once again use his speaking time to rail against democracy projects and NGOs. And that a CDU city councillor, too, would feel targeted was also to be expected. For it was the actions of a CDU minister in Berlin that had prompted the Left Party group in the Leipzig City Council to take action. Karin Prien intends to slash federal funding for democracy projects. This also has consequences for initiatives in Leipzig.

In the words of the Left Party’s motion, on which Councillor Juliane Nagel spoke at the council meeting on 2 September: “Federal Minister for Education Karin Prien (CDU) announced in March that she would restructure the federal programme ‘Demokratie leben!’ and cut funding for successful civil society projects. The groundwork for this scandalous attack on democratic civil society had been laid by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the last Bundestag, when it sought to shed light on who the ‘Demokratie leben!’ funding programme was supporting and in what way by submitting 551 questions to the then ‘traffic light’ coalition government.

Minister Prien is now continuing along this path: more than 200 projects are set to lose their funding by the end of 2026. Among those affected are organisations such as the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, Correctiv, BUND and many other initiatives that campaign nationwide for a strong civil society, against hate and violence, and in support of democratic values. In Saxony too, and particularly in Leipzig, a number of grant recipients are affected.”

This was an issue that Leipzig’s administration – in this case, the Democracy Department – considered both right and important. Even though it made no financial commitments. There is simply no room for this in Leipzig’s current budget. The city could not (once again) contribute funds to a federal programme in which the federal government was shirking its responsibility. This was also the view expressed in the debate by BSW city councillor Ralf Pannowitsch.

A barrage of insults

One could, therefore, have argued about the lack of funds. But AfD city councillor Roland Ulbrich simply used his speaking time to rail against NGOs and the promotion of democracy, and to hurl actual insults such as “pampering migrants” and “rainbow nonsense”, as Green Party city councillor Marsha Richarz later criticised. She would have liked to see Mayor Burkhard Jung intervene immediately. However, he only intended to react afterwards.

Which, of course, makes no sense. AfD members such as Ulbrich deliberately include insults in their city council speeches. On the one hand as a provocation, and on the other for their own social media following. True to the motto: ‘I really gave it to them.’

However, the fact that this tramples all over democratic respect is by no means a minor matter. On the contrary. Jung should have intervened, at the very latest when Ulbrich was ranting about ‘left-wing extremist terror against the citizens’ in reference to the NGOs he demonises. With a raised finger, as always when he delivers his tirades against the left.

The cosy centre

Nor was the speech by CDU parliamentary group leader Michael Weickert particularly helpful; he claimed to have inferred from Juliane Nagel’s speech that funding democracy projects was a means of countering the AfD’s rising electoral fortunes. Which, of course, the AfD’s election results since 2021 would seem to contradict.

But what had probably really got under his skin was Nagel’s assertion that the CDU Federal Minister was playing into the AfD’s hands with her cuts to democracy projects. After all, he argued, his CDU was actually the party that shaped democracy policy.

Peace-building and reconciliation look rather different. Of course, none of the other political groups took the bait on these remarks; otherwise, it would probably have been a very, very long evening. With no holds barred.

It’s about 1.5 million euros

Although the only issue at stake was how Leipzig’s democracy projects – such as the Erich-Zeigner-Haus e.V. – are now supposed to make ends meet if Prien gets her way with her cutback plans. There is no solution to that. Apart from calling on the Lord Mayor to lobby Prien to ensure that funding under the ‘Demokratie leben’ programme is continued until 2028.

And, according to the Democracy Department: “The Lord Mayor is campaigning within the German Association of Cities for the abolition of the new, more bureaucratic and restrictive funding conditions for project organisers under ‘Demokratie leben’, as these pose a major challenge both for the city, as the primary recipient of the ‘Partnerships for Democracy’ funds, and for the project organisers.”

This is, of course, the list of questions driven by mistrust that funding recipients are now required to answer, as described in the motion tabled by the Left Party: “The ‘further ancillary provisions’ (see 2.11 https://fragdenstaat.de/dokumente/274940-nebenbestimmungen-bafza/?page=1), extensive measures are provided for the vetting, data sharing and scrutiny of project organisers and partners, which also met with criticism during the debate in the local monitoring committee. The federal government also intends to make the final decisions on projects within the framework of ‘Partnerships for Democracy’ itself, thereby undermining local decision-making processes.

This amounts to a reversal of the previous funding logic, under which decisions were made transparently and in accordance with local conditions. (Background: https://www.belltower.news/partnerschaften-fuer-demokratie-kommunale-demokratieprojekte-vor-dem-kollaps-164505/).”

Anyone who stands up for democracy makes themselves a suspect. That is exactly how one can interpret this.

Even if, ultimately, it comes down to the question of money. “The six organisations named in the original application alone receive a total of approximately 1.5 million euros under various programme areas of ‘Demokratie leben!’ for their valuable work in promoting democracy. It is unrealistic for the city to compensate for this sum,” the Democracy Department had stated.

The initiatives would also be free to apply to the city for institutional funding. However, these funds will not increase. Leipzig cannot compensate for the impending loss of federal funding.

However, the city’s proposal to advocate at federal level for the continuation of funding ultimately secured a – albeit narrow – majority in the council meeting, with 33 votes to 32.