BERLIN: Left-wing parties in the German parliament reacted with consternation on Wednesday after the conservatives, fresh from their election win, demanded more scrutiny of a list of government-funded projects.
The CDU/CSU alliance of Friedrich Merz, which won Sunday’s election with 28.5 percent of the vote, submitted a set of written questions to the outgoing government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday.
The hundreds of questions demanded more clarity on the funding of campaign groups such as Omas Gegen Rechts (“Grannies Against the Right“), Greenpeace and other environmental organizations, and a wide range of other NGOs.
The questions were grouped under the heading “political neutrality of state-funded organizations.”
The party said it had tabled them in response to recent “protests against the CDU in Germany, some of which were organized or supported by non-profit or state-funded organizations.”
Thousands of people took part in demonstrations after the CDU in January controversially accepted the support of the far-right AfD to push through a parliamentary vote on migration.
Lars Klingbeil of Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) on Wednesday accused the CDU/CSU of targeting “precisely those organizations that protect our democracy, which it is denigrating and calling into question.”
Following the election on Sunday, Merz has reached out to the center-left SPD with hopes of forming a coalition.
But Klingbeil, newly elected as head of the SPD parliamentary group, accused the conservatives of “foul play” and urged them to “quickly reflect” on whether they wanted to pursue the questions.
Other parties have also reacted angrily to the move, with the far-left Die Linke calling it “an unprecedented attack on democratic civil society.”
“This is reminiscent of authoritarian states and, given that the CDU/CSU will in all likelihood lead the next federal government, is extremely worrying,” Die Linke’s Clara Buenger said.
Sergey Lagodinsky, a member of the European Parliament for the Greens, said it was a “very bad omen for the next four years” and “almost Trump-like.”
US President Donald Trump has enlisted tech billionaire Elon Musk to lead federal cost-cutting efforts under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk has spearheaded program and personnel cuts across a wide range of federal agencies and departments, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
Matthias Middelberg, a spokesman for the CDU, said public funding “must not be used for party political purposes.”
No organization should be “eligible for support if it is used to influence political decision-making and public opinion in line with the organization’s own views,” he said.
Anger as German conservatives question NGO funding
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Anger as German conservatives question NGO funding
- The hundreds of questions demanded more clarity on the funding of campaign groups such as “Grannies Against the Right,” Greenpeace and other organizations
- The questions were grouped under the heading “political neutrality of state-funded organizations“
Changes to US security strategy ‘largely consistent’ with Russia’s vision: Kremlin
- Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones”
MOSCOW: Russia has welcomed changes in the US National Security Strategy, saying the adjustments that marked a radical departure from Washington’s previous policy were “largely consistent” with Moscow’s vision.
Washington’s new National Security Strategy, published early Friday, took aim at allies in Europe, calling it over-regulated, lacking in “self-confidence” and facing “civilizational erasure” due to immigration.
The document stated that the United States would also prevent other powers from dominating but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”
Commenting on the new US strategy, the Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the current US administration was “fundamentally different from the previous ones.”
“The adjustments we’re seeing, I would say, are largely consistent with our vision,” Peskov said in an interview with state TV station Rossiya aired Sunday.
“President Trump is currently strong in terms of domestic political positions. And this gives him the opportunity to adjust the concept to suit his vision,” Peskov added.
The publication of the updated security strategy came as officials from Kyiv held talks in Florida with Trump’s envoys on the US-drafted plan to end the near four-year war in Ukraine.
Three days of talks produced no apparent breakthrough.
President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to further negotiations toward “real peace,” as Russia in the early hours of Saturday launched another series of drone and missile strikes at Ukraine.
Zelensky is due to meet with European leaders — French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — in London on Monday to take stock of the negotiations.
