As the latest example of the German federal government endorsing hardly justifiable causes, an association promoting political participation rights for worms, viruses, and bacteria received more than €100,000 in taxpayer funding.
The German Federal Agency for Civic Education is facing criticism for the public funding of yet another project deeply rooted in the flawed “green ideology” dominating left-wing politics in Germany. It is not yet clear what exactly the organization used the money for.
The association, called Organism Democracy, was granted a total of €109,124 in 2023 and 2024, it was revealed following a parliamentary inquiry in the Bundestag. The project also reportedly received support from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe.
The group argues that political rights should not be limited to humans alone but extended to all living organisms within a country’s territory. On its website, the association states that all organisms have “equal rights to political participation.” Visitors can also use a “voting compass” that assigns them to political factions including “mollusks and worms” or “bacteria, single-celled organisms, and viruses.”
Events organized under the project reportedly included discussions about how ecosystems function “when humans are not ruling dictatorially.”
The Federal Ministry of the Interior explained the funding by saying the initiative was intended to present democratic participation in a “playful” way while encouraging new perspectives on social coexistence. In short, the interior ministry essentially said they supported the project because it was fun.defra
At the same time, the current leadership of the Federal Agency for Civic Education appears to be distancing itself from the project, after the funding has been uncovered, offering no official statement or reasoning for the support of the project.
The organizational unit responsible for the funding has since been dissolved, making it harder for authorities to investigate the reasoning behind this decision and to question whether the project was used for defrauding taxpayer money.
