Increasing demands for the ‘neutrality’ of civil society present many non-profit and state-funded organisations with content dilemmas as well as financial and administrative risks. It is often unclear how far neutrality requirements reach, which forms of political positioning are permissible and what risks arise for state funding and non-profit status.
As part of the Labora Lecture, we look at these areas of tension and discuss with a diverse group of experts how current legal developments and administrative practice have a concrete impact on the scope for action, public funding and democratic engagement of civil society actors. The Labora Lecture is initiated by an input from our guest Dr. Michael Ernst-Pörksen.
Introduction to the topic by Dr. Michael Ernst-Pörksen
By judgment of 10 January 2019 and by order of 10 December 2020, the Bundesfinanzhof (Federal Finance Court, BFH) confirmed the view of the Finanzamt Frankfurt am Main III that the Attac Trägerverein e.V. should not be granted ‘an exemption from corporation and trade tax for the 2010 business year because of the pursuit of tax-privileged purposes’ (decision of 14 April 2014).
On 24 February 2025, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag addressed to the Federal Government a ‘small question’ entitled ‘Political neutrality of state-funded organisations’. The question contains 551 individual questions, 541 of which deal with the political commitment of individual organisations.
Both processes mark cuts in the media and political perception of the role of civil society organisations in shaping political processes in the Federal Republic of Germany. If the first topic is essentially about questions of non-profit law, the "Small Question" broadens the topic as a whole to include public support for civil society organisations beyond tax relief.
While the discussion on the scope for non-profit bodies to participate in political debates and thus ‘participate in the formation of political will’ (see the first sentence of Article 21(1) of the Basic Law with regard to the parties) has found a temporary resting point, the debate on the political neutrality of state-sponsored organisations is still looking for a viable focus. Only slowly does the core of this debate emerge: it is not so much about the political neutrality of the individual civil society organization, but about the politically neutral funding program, the politically neutral funding guideline, about the political distance of the state.
Organised civil society is concerned with the limitation of the capacity to act: in the one debate about the loss of the tax advantage, both of its own and of that of its private donors (non-profit right), in the second with the direct state support (right to grant). And while the organizations are beginning to organize escape routes for both (abandonment of non-profit status, reduction of dependence on public funds), the contours of further material curtailment are already apparent: the legal limitation of the financing of political activity from non-governmental funds beyond fiscal support (large private donations, corporate donations, financing by foundations).
The attacks on the autonomy of civil society organisations therefore come from different directions and with different thematic foundations.
The reaction of the attackers has so far been largely exhausted in indignation. However, despite some confusion, the debate on non-profit law conducted with the involvement of law and case law has shown in detail that it can be useful not only to understand the attacks as a disturbance of rest, but also to take the opportunity to reflect on the socio-political and legal foundations of one's own actions.
This also includes looking at the tense relationship between the state and organised civil society. Both sectors cannot be defined in democratic societies without reference to each other. The material renunciation of one from the other is only possible to a limited extent. Thus, civil society organisations as a whole cannot do without the allocation of state resources, the state in democracy cannot become fully effective without using the activities of civil society organisations. For democratic society, the state and organised civil society condition each other, move each other and limit each other.
From a civil society point of view, it is therefore not only the state's scope for action that must be determined critically, but also its own. This applies equally to non-profit bodies and to subsidised non-tax-privileged bodies.
Dr. Michael Ernst-Pörksen is an economist and has been advising non-profit corporations since the 1990s.
To the Labora Lectures
With the Labora lectures brings the Minor – Labora experts from science, politics and practice into an intensive exchange on issues and social developments that affect the shaping of the future of our society. We aim at mutual learning on innovative ideas, methods and approaches to improve the situation of marginalized or disadvantaged groups. We welcome the guests with a special wine, other drinks and some food that accompanies the evening in the fireplace room. The Labora lectures are organised and implemented in cooperation with Minor – Project Kontor for Education and Research, Minor – Science Society and La Red – Networking and Integration.
The Labora lectures It's called Chatham House Rules.