BERLIN
\nLeft-wing parties in the German parliament reacted with consternation on Wednesday after the conservatives, fresh from their election win, demanded more scrutiny of a list of government-funded projects.
\nThe CDU\/CSU alliance of Friedrich Merz, which won Sunday\u2019s election with 28.5 percent of the vote, submitted a set of written questions to the outgoing government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday.
\nThe hundreds of questions demanded more clarity on the funding of campaign groups such as Omas Gegen Rechts (\u201cGrannies Against the Right\u201c), Greenpeace and other environmental organizations, and a wide range of other NGOs.
\nThe questions were grouped under the heading \u201cpolitical neutrality of state-funded organizations.\u201d
\nThe party said it had tabled them in response to recent \u201cprotests against the CDU in Germany, some of which were organized or supported by non-profit or state-funded organizations.\u201d
\nThousands of people took part in demonstrations after the CDU in January controversially accepted the support of the far-right AfD to push through a parliamentary vote on migration.
\nLars Klingbeil of Scholz\u2019s Social Democrats (SPD) on Wednesday accused the CDU\/CSU of targeting \u201cprecisely those organizations that protect our democracy, which it is denigrating and calling into question.\u201d
\nFollowing the election on Sunday, Merz has reached out to the center-left SPD with hopes of forming a coalition.
\nBut Klingbeil, newly elected as head of the SPD parliamentary group, accused the conservatives of \u201cfoul play\u201d and urged them to \u201cquickly reflect\u201d on whether they wanted to pursue the questions.
\nOther parties have also reacted angrily to the move, with the far-left Die Linke calling it \u201can unprecedented attack on democratic civil society.\u201d
\n\u201cThis is reminiscent of authoritarian states and, given that the CDU\/CSU will in all likelihood lead the next federal government, is extremely worrying,\u201d Die Linke\u2019s Clara Buenger said.
\nSergey Lagodinsky, a member of the European Parliament for the Greens, said it was a \u201cvery bad omen for the next four years\u201d and \u201calmost Trump-like.\u201d
\nUS President Donald Trump has enlisted tech billionaire Elon Musk to lead federal cost-cutting efforts under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
\nMusk has spearheaded program and personnel cuts across a wide range of federal agencies and departments, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
\nMatthias Middelberg, a spokesman for the CDU, said public funding \u201cmust not be used for party political purposes.\u201d
\nNo organization should be \u201celigible for support if it is used to influence political decision-making and public opinion in line with the organization\u2019s own views,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BERLIN Left-wing parties in the German parliament reacted with consternation on Wednesday after the conservatives, fresh from their election win, demanded more scrutiny of a list of government-funded projects. The CDU\/CSU alliance of Friedrich Merz, which won Sunday\u2019s election with 28.5 percent of the vote, submitted a set of written questions to the outgoing government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-464051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n