Short inquiry from the CDU/CSU: How political can a sports club be?

Freiburg taz | The red-green-yellow federal government has also failed in promoting democracy. According to the coalition agreement, it wanted to modernize non-profit law and promote democracy projects in the long term. Neither of these efforts was successful because the FDP, in particular Finance Minister Christian Lindner, blocked it. The reason given was that left-green projects in particular would benefit from the reforms.

If an organization is considered non-profit, it has to pay less taxes. And taxpayers can also deduct their donations to the organization. The legislator has listed which purposes are non-profit in the tax code, including culture, sports, science, the preservation of traditions, environmental protection, and help for refugees.

Political education is also a non-profit organization. However, political campaigns do not count as political education, the Federal Finance Court ruled in a landmark ruling in 2019. The anti-globalization NGO Attac had unsuccessfully fought against the revocation of its non-profit status. The ruling led to great uncertainty among non-governmental organizations, even though the feared broad wave of non-profit status revocations has so far failed to materialize.

After all, in 2022 the Ministry of Finance stated in an application decree on the tax code that there was "no objection if a tax-privileged corporation occasionally takes a position on current political issues outside of its statutory purposes". In brackets it added: "e.g. a call by a sports club for climate protection or against racism". However, no legal clarification in the tax code was made. The CDU/CSU is now also pointing this out and questioning the legality of the decree.

The traffic light coalition also failed with the so-called Democracy Promotion Act . Initiatives against racism and extremism should receive long-term funding commitments and not have to worry every year whether the funding will be continued. The Federal Cabinet passed a draft law in March 2023, but it fizzled out despite increasing anti-Semitism.

The CDU/CSU postulates that state-supported projects must remain politically neutral. But this is controversial. In fact, the obligation of neutrality postulated by the Federal Constitutional Court only applies to the state itself. For example, the federal government is not allowed to call for anti-AfD demonstrations.

However, in a special report at the beginning of 2024, the Saxon State Audit Office put forward the thesis that the state government should not circumvent its own obligation to political neutrality by financing civil society groups that then attack other parties in a way that is prohibited by the ministry itself. A counter-report by Mainz law professor Friedhelm Hufen, on the other hand, came to the conclusion that state-funded projects are certainly allowed to criticize the AfD.