Right-wing media in Germany have revealed that millions of taxpayer euros have been spent to prop up organisations that have been holding demonstrations against their perceived threat of the ‘far right.’
More than 200,000 people took to the streets of Munich on Saturday, February 8th, and another 24,000 gathered in Hanover to protest against the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party. Smaller demonstrations were held all across Germany on Sunday, too.
The latest rallies came after tens of thousands of people marched in Berlin last weekend.
The protests are a response to the centre-right CDU/CSU alliance and the AfD voting together to pass a non-binding motion in parliament aimed at turning back illegal and undocumented migrants at the nation’s borders.
The CDU/CSU has been accused of breaking the taboo on cooperating with the AfD, and CDU leader Friedrich Merz has been harshly criticised at the rallies.
According to reports cited by daily Bild, the protest in Munich has its roots in left-wing party politics, as it was organised by the association called Before, whose chairwoman is Social Democrat city councillor Micky Wenngatz.
Another group, Zusammen gegen Rechts (Together against the Right), that has organised demonstrations against the CDU, is funded by the Campact association, which is the main shareholder of the non-profit HateAid company—a firm that is heavily financed by and has received a total of €2.5 million of taxpayers’ money from the Family Affairs ministry.
The group behind the protest in Hanover was the Omas gegen Rechts (Grannies against the Right) group, which calls itself “politically neutral,” but regularly agitates against the AfD, and disinvited speakers from the CDU, as well as the liberal FDP to its rally. The Grannies have received €18,000 funding from the Family Affairs ministry and another €5,000 from the chancellery.
The Bund für Umweltschutz und Naturschutz (BUND) is a non-governmental organisation dedicated to protecting the environment, but only in its name. In practice it is more than active in politics, having among others helped organise a protest against the Right on February 1st in Stuttgart. According to the Bundestag’s lobby register, the organisation received a six-figure sum from both the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Education in 2023. Their biggest patron, however, is the Ministry of Economic Affairs, run by Robert Habeck, who is the lead candidate for the Greens at the upcoming elections. BUND received €2 million from Habeck’s department.
To make matters even more interesting: Verena Graichen, the deputy chairwoman of BUND, is the sister of Patrick Graichen, State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs until 2023.
As Bild rightly points out, the German government is strongly linked to the mass demonstrations.
The ruling elite is clearly panicking about the rise of the AfD in opinion polls ahead of the elections on February 23rd and is now upping its efforts to dissuade citizens from voting for the right-wing party.
