Foundation promotion: AfD-related foundation demands state money in the millions

The AfD-close Desiderius Erasmus Foundation pushes to the Bundestag to participate in the state financing of political foundations after the third arrival of the AfD. “We are entitled to funding,” said Erika Steinbach (AfD) chairman in Berlin. She assumes that the responsible Federal Ministry of the Interior will give the green light. The application for funding for 2026 was submitted to the ministry.

Foundation relies on a new legal situation

The former CDU politician referred to the Foundation Financing Act decided at the end of 2023. It states that party -related foundations are encouraged if the party, which is close to it, has moved into the Bundestag for the third time in a row, which the AfD has now achieved.

Another condition: The funded foundations must offer the guarantee of actively standing out for the free democratic basic order and the thoughts of international understanding. According to the law, funding would apply in the year after the Bundestag election – i.e. 2026.

Steinbach: stand on the ground of the Basic Law

Steinbach sees no contrast to the youngest – but initially again on ice due to an ongoing litigation – classification of the AfD as secure right -wing extremist by the protection of the constitution. Only the Federal Constitutional Court can determine an anti -constitutionality. “We ourselves as a political foundation are fully on the ground of our Basic Law.”

Foundations receive funding in the three -digit millions

The foundations close to the parties-the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation (CDU), the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (SPD), Friedrich-Naumann Foundation (FDP), Hanns-Seidel Foundation (CSU), Heinrich Böll Foundation (Greens) and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (left)-receive annual support in three-digit millions.

The Desiderius Erasmus Foundation has so far been empty. The AfD had complained. The Federal Constitutional Court then decided in February 2023 that the previously common, decades of funding practice must be improved without the legal regulation of the funding criteria. The Foundation Financing Act then created a legal basis in which the conditions for state funding are defined.

According to its own calculations, the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation from 2026 would be almost 18 million euros annually from the budget of the Federal Ministry of the Interior.