Erfurt (dpa/th) - Trade unionists and representatives of democracy projects protested against planned cuts in the state program for democracy, tolerance and cosmopolitanism in front of the state parliament in Erfurt. "You don't skimp on democracy," it said on banners. Around 100 demonstrators symbolically showed the CDU faction red cards on Thursday. She had pushed through a cut of around 400,000 euros in the program during the budget negotiations with the red-red-green minority coalition. The money should go to the adult education centres.
"The CDU is offensively fishing on the right-hand edge," said the deputy chairwoman of the DGB Hesse-Thuringia, Renate Sternatz, on the sidelines of the rally to which the DGB had called. An opposition party is also responsible for the situation in the country.
The head of the democracy consulting project Mobit, Romy Arnold, said the cuts were a fatal signal to everyone who was involved in Thuringia, among other things, against the extreme right. She referred to a nationwide raid against Reich citizens, which had also led to searches in Thuringia. Arnold said democracy education in Thuringia had been structurally underfunded for years.
According to the Ministry of Education, more than 5.7 million euros will be available for the democracy program in the coming year. About one million euros would come from the federal government. The CDU argued that in the past funds had not flowed out of the state program. They are in better hands with the adult education centres. Democracy education is also practiced there.
