{"id":1529541,"date":"2025-04-10T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1529541"},"modified":"2025-04-10T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T10:00:00","slug":"germanys-coalition-government-wants-to-strengthen-democracy-by-abolishing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/germanys-coalition-government-wants-to-strengthen-democracy-by-abolishing-it\/1529541\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany’s Coalition Government Wants To “Strengthen” Democracy\u00a0By Abolishing It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany’s Coalition Government Wants To “Strengthen” Democracy\u00a0By Abolishing It<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Rainer Rupp<\/em><\/p>\n

The two political parties with the most dramatic losses at the recent elections, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), often called the \u201cblack\u201d party due to its traditional color, and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), known as the \u201cred\u201d party, are in advanced negotiations to form a coalition coalition-government \u2014nicknamed \u201cBlackRed\u201d or even \u201cBlackRot\u201d by critics. In the U.S. you are used to a two-party system with Democrats and Republicans, but Germany\u2019s system often involves coalitions because no single party typically wins a majority.<\/p>\n

Right now, the CDU (think center-right, like moderate Republicans) and SPD (center-left, somewhat like Democrats) are hashing out a deal to govern together after recent elections. Their stated goal? To \u201cstrengthen representative democracy.\u201d But some of their leaked proposals have raised eyebrows\u2014and alarm bells\u2014because they seem to involve curbing free speech and even banning certain politicians from running for office. Here\u2019s what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Scrapping Transparency: Goodbye to the Germany\u2019s Freedom of Information Act<\/strong><\/h2>\n

One of the most shocking ideas in the leaked coalition papers is the plan to ditch Germany\u2019s Freedom of Information Act (IFG), similar to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the US, which lets citizens request government records\u2014like emails or reports\u2014to hold officials accountable. Germany\u2019s IFG, passed in 2006, does the same, giving people access to federal agency data. It\u2019s been a tool for exposing scandals, like a botched highway toll project, health agency cover-ups during COVID, or shady financial deals tied to tax evasion. German media, like the public broadcaster ZDF, had called this law a game-changer for transparency.<\/p>\n

Via AFP<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

But the BlackRed coalition wants to \u201cabolish it in its current form,\u201d according to the leaked documents. In an Orwellian slant the CDU claims this is part of modernizing Germany\u2019s parliament, the Bundestag, and making it better at overseeing the government. Critics aren\u2019t buying it. News outlets like T-Online call it a \u201cdirect attack on citizens,\u201d not a reform. The CDU\u2019s Member of Parliament, Philipp Amthor, a politician once embarrassed by IFG disclosures, is spinning it as an update, and the SPD\u2019s reaction has been lukewarm at best.<\/p>\n

The proposal\u2019s still in blue ink\u2014meaning it\u2019s up for debate\u2014but even suggesting it\u2019s negotiable has sparked outrage. Germany\u2019s journalists\u2019 union and the opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP, a pro-business group) are slamming it, arguing it\u2019s a power grab dressed up as \u201creducing bureaucracy.\u201d The FDP quipped, \u201cThe motto seems to be: \u2018The citizen doesn\u2019t need to know everything!\u2019\u201d Over 100,000 requests have been filed under this law\u2014scrapping it would blind the public to government actions.<\/p>\n

Criminalizing \u201cLies\u201d: A Slippery Slope for Free Speech It gets worse<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The coalition also wants to crack down on what they call the \u201cdeliberate spread of false factual claims.\u201d Their argument? Free speech doesn\u2019t cover lies, so they want \u201cstate-independent media oversight\u201d to step in, based on \u201cclear legal guidelines,\u201d to fight \u201cinformation manipulation, hate, and incitement.\u201d Sounds noble, right? But here\u2019s the catch: who decides what\u2019s a lie, what is hate and what is incitement? These terms are rubber, you can stretch the arbitrarily to suit your purpose. In the U.S., free speech is sacred under the First Amendment, even if someone\u2019s spouting nonsense like \u201cthe Earth is flat.\u201d Germany\u2019s constitution protects free expression too, but with limits\u2014like laws against Holocaust denial or defamation. Courts there already say provably false statements aren\u2019t protected if they\u2019re just facts, not opinions. But if those \u201cfacts\u201d mix with opinions\u2014like in a political rant\u2014they still get a shield for the time beeing.<\/p>\n

The BlackRed plan, though, goes further. They want to make spreading \u201cfalse claims\u201d a crime, separate from existing laws like slander. German columnist Nikolaus Blome, writing in \u201cDer Spiegel\u201d, says this \u201cwell-meaning\u201d idea terrifies him\u2014it\u2019s too vague.\u201d Die Welt\u201d, another major paper, agrees: lying is covered by free speech unless it crosses into clear legal violations, and fuzzy terms like \u201chate and incitement\u201d aren\u2019t legal definitions\u2014they\u2019re buzzwords for activist groups. Imagine a U.S. government agency deciding which political tweets are \u201cfalse\u201d and punishing the posters. Who\u2019d run that? A \u201cMinistry of Truth\u201d? Critics see a huge risk of abuse here, especially in heated political debates where \u201ctruth\u201d is often subjective.<\/p>\n

Banning Politicians: \u201cIncitement\u201d as a Career Ender<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Then there\u2019s the kicker: the coalition\u2019s talking about stripping people of their right to run for office if they\u2019re convicted multiple times of \u201cincitement\u201d (Volksverhetzung in German). This law already covers things like hate speech or promoting violence against groups. The CDU and SPD want to toughen it up and add a penalty: if you\u2019re found guilty more than once, you\u2019re barred from elected office, at least temporarily. They frame it as \u201cstrengthening democracy\u2019s resilience\u201d against terrorism, antisemitism, and hate. They also want to explore punishing public officials or soldiers who share extremist stuff (speaking out against the government) in private chats.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

In the U.S., barring someone from running for office is rare and usually tied to serious crimes like treason\u2014think of the 14th Amendment after the Civil War. Germany\u2019s proposal feels more like a political weapon against the opposition. The SPD\u2019s been pushing this \u201celigibility ban\u201d for a while, and now it\u2019s in the coalition talks. \u201cDie Welt\u201d reports it\u2019s aimed at extremists, but the vagueness of \u201cincitement\u201d could snag anyone with controversial views. Picture a U.S. politician banned from Congress for \u201chate speech\u201d after a few convictions\u2014supporters would cry foul, and opponents would cheer. In Germany, critics see this as democracy eating itself: silencing dissent under the guise of protecting it.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Big Picture?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The CDU and SPD say all this\u2014dumping the IFG, policing \u201clies,\u201d banning candidates\u2014is about making democracy stronger and safer. They\u2019re pitching it as a response to misinformation, extremism, and public distrust, which have been hot topics since COVID and the rise of patriotic conservative groups like the Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland (AfD). But to many Germans, it looks like a power grab, what it is!<\/p>\n

For U.S. readers, think of it this way: imagine a Republican-Democrat coalition promising to \u201cfix\u201d Congress by killing FOIA, jailing people for \u201cfake news,\u201d and barring candidates for \u201chate speech.\u201d You\u2019d have protests in the streets. That\u2019s the vibe in Germany right now\u2014except their system\u2019s more used to compromise<\/strong>, so the backlash is still brewing. Whether these plans survive the final coalition deal is unclear, but they\u2019ve already lit a fuse. Germany\u2019s about to test how much mess it can handle\u2014or suppress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 04\/10\/2025 – 02:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/germanys-coalition-government-wants-strengthen-democracy-abolishing-it<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Germany’s Coalition Government Wants To “Strengthen” Democracy\u00a0By Abolishing It Authored by Rainer Rupp The two political parties with the most dramatic losses at the recent…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1529542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1529541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1529541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1529541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1529542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1529541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1529541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1529541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}