{"id":1877,"date":"2025-11-25T09:09:35","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T09:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/pastevent\/zeit-zu-reden-civil-society-under-pressure\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T11:36:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T11:36:02","slug":"zeit-zu-reden-civil-society-under-pressure","status":"publish","type":"nor-pastevents","link":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/pastevent\/zeit-zu-reden-civil-society-under-pressure\/","title":{"rendered":"Zeit zu reden: Civil Society Under Pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Zeit zu reden - Zivilgesellschaft unter Druck.\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fbDLRralfH4?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n<\/div><\/figure><br>\n\n<p>As membership of political parties is declining, more and more people are becoming active in civil society initiatives, associations, and non-governmental organizations. While their charitable work must adhere to their own constitutional purposes, this does not exclude advocating for democracy, human rights, and other values enshrined in Germany&#8217;s constitution. <\/p>\n\n<p>This is a thorn in the side of authoritarian forces: using disinformation and defamation, they attempt to paint a narrative of an overpowering civil society acting in a partisan political manner. Funding and jobs are being cut, rights to participate and to litigate are being called into question, and democratic spaces for action and discussion are being restricted, especially in connection with work related to Palestine and Israel. In December 2025, the\u00a0<em>CIVICUS Monitor<\/em>\u00a0consequently downgraded Germany&#8217;s civic space rating to &#8220;obstructed.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<p>Local and migrant-led initiatives are particularly affected, but even large NGOs rooted in mainstream society are facing hostility. In their parliamentary inquiry in February 2025, the CDU\/CSU parliamentary group demanded that state-funded associations be scrutinized for their political neutrality: from environmental organizations like\u00a0<strong>Greenpeace\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0<strong>BUND,\u00a0<\/strong>to socio-political initiatives like\u00a0<strong>Campact\u00a0<\/strong>and<strong>\u00a0&#8220;Omas gegen rechts&#8221;,<\/strong>\u00a0to critical media outlets like<strong>\u00a0CORRECTIV<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>Netzwerk Recherche.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>But how neutral should civil society engagement be in the face of the rise of parties hostile to the constitution? How apolitical can associations be in times of rising and politically promoted hostility towards people? Must an animal welfare association remain silent when demonstrators or those seeking asylum are attacked? Should critical journalists not name the politicians, who want to restrict media and freedom of expression? And why are Jews in solidarity with Palestine not allowed to participate in an event on far-right structures? <\/p>\n\n<p>The long-held understanding, developed over decades, that civil society, churches, and the established parties are allies\u2014despite programmatic differences\u2014in the fight against authoritarian and extremist forces, is being called into question. 80 years after the end of the Nazi regime, the fight for equivalence and equal rights of all people in Germany is being portrayed as a &#8220;left-wing&#8221; project, precisely at a moment, when individual freedom and legal equality seem more self-evident than ever before. <\/p>\n\n<p>The panel will discuss the state of German (civil) society, the usefulness of political categories, and strategies against authoritarian tendencies both from within and from outside. <\/p>\n\n<p>With <strong>Christina Deckwirth,<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Riad Othman,<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Richard David Precht<\/strong> and\u00a0<strong>Louna Sbou<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Moderated by <strong>Kristin Helberg<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>This event is supported by the\u00a0<strong>Sch\u00f6pflin Stiftung,<\/strong>\u00a0the\u00a0<strong>Stiftung Mercator,\u00a0<\/strong>the\u00a0<strong>Robert Bosch Stiftung<\/strong>\u00a0und the\u00a0<strong>Postcode Lotterie.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As membership of political parties is declining, more and more people are becoming active in civil society initiatives, associations, and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"nor-pastevents_cat":[],"class_list":["post-1877","nor-pastevents","type-nor-pastevents","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nor-pastevents\/1877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nor-pastevents"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/nor-pastevents"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1877"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1877"},{"taxonomy":"nor-pastevents_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zeitzureden.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nor-pastevents_cat?post=1877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}