EU Parliament, Strasbourg, P9 CRE-PROV(2022)03-07(1-117-0000).
Herr President. Herr Commissioner.
Shrinking spaces – that is, schrumpfende Betätigungsfelder – for civil societies: That is
nothing other than fake news. Primarily in Germany, yet also in many other
countries, the financing increases year by year; thus there can be no talk at
all of shrinking space.
What are civil societies? Civil societies are those which
are usually designated as NGOs, or now in New German as NPOs – non-profit
organizations. In fact, hiding behind this are nothing more than lobbyists. And
who speaks with the people at Europol, as I have done recently, finds there
quite clear considerations. They speak of namely that now already many NGOs
have been infiltrated by organized criminality and that many NGOs in that
regard serve for money laundering. Yet here, unfortunately, the European
Parliament takes not a peek.
Primarily however, NGOs, or what is here called civil
society, are a concrete problem in terms of democratic theory. At least in
Germany, it is said: “All power of the state proceeds from the people”. It is not
said: All power proceeds from civil society and lobby groups. Yet it leads to
precisely that when the EU, yet plainly also the countries, give ever more
money to such lobby groups.
Therefore, one should not complain of an allegedly shrinking
space for civil societies, but expressly welcome it. Civil societies are not,
as was previously said here, a guarantee for democracy but an acute danger and
therefore any financing should be suspended.
[trans: tem]
