AfD in Saxony | Right-wing in Weißwasser and Wurzen: The Hafenstube as a thorn in the side

The Schlager Night at the Jahnbad is one of the cultural highlights of every summer in Weißwasser. Over 1,000 visitors regularly attend the event, which is a lot for a town that, after years of exodus, has a population of just over 15,000. The party is organized by the Telux Sociocultural Center (SKZ), which is located in the former glass factory of the same name and hosts numerous other events in the "Hafenstube" there: concerts, cinema, workshops and creative courses, and a legendary Christmas market. "Without Telux," said a participant in a demonstration in early May, "Weißwasser would become a mere dormitory town."

The demonstration took place because the Telux is under acute threat. The city council has so far been unable to bring itself to approve €44,000 in funding for the current year. This funding would cover the 15 percent share required for the state-funded Upper Lusatia-Lower Silesia Cultural Region to receive the remaining 85 percent of funding. If the funding amount is reduced or even eliminated entirely, "the funding will collapse," explains the SKZ. The association would be insolvent.

The AfD would probably be quite happy with that. It is the driving force behind the council majority's previous refusal to support the funding. In November, it already pushed through a retroactive 30 percent cut in the subsidy for 2024. Ostensibly, the right-wing parties point to the empty coffers of the city, which once lived off the coal and glass industries but is now suffering severely from structural change in Lusatia . In reality, however, the cultural offerings at the Hafenstube are likely too alternative and diverse for them. AfD city councilor Ronny Hentschel declared that culture must "emerge from the heart of society and not through subsidies." City councilor Sebastian Krüger of the Klartext voters' association stated that it is "systemic for the AfD to endanger such institutions."

"If the city's subsidy is reduced, the funding will collapse."

SKZ Telux appeal for donations

Warnings about this have been around for a long time. The Saxony Cultural Office, for example, emphasized back in 2020 that, with its growing strength in municipalities, the AfD had " its hands on funding pots and municipal properties, in decisions about refugee accommodations, and in committees for youth and cultural work." The Treibhaus socio-cultural center in Döbeln had recently experienced what this looked like in practice. The AfD discredited it as left-wing extremist in a campaign, with the result that the cultural center and the CDU district administrators with voting rights there temporarily postponed funding. It was finally granted in January 2020.

The AfD's influence has grown significantly since the 2024 local elections. In Weißwasser, the party has seven of the 22 city councilors and is by far the strongest faction. In the similarly sized town of Wurzen, it has six of the 20 representatives; the CDU has the same number. There, the city council recently refused to grant the Democratic Culture Network (NDK) a municipal share of its headquarters; the amount at stake was €12,900. In a secret ballot, twelve council members voted in favor of the deletion. The Amadeu Antonio Foundation expressed its "shock" that a suspected alliance between the AfD and the CDU was damaging a "flagship of successful democratic work." The NDK called it a "decidedly politically motivated attack on an alternative part of democratic civil society."

In Weißwasser, the final decision has not yet been made. At the beginning of May, the city council postponed the vote; this Wednesday, the committee will revisit the issue. The SKZ calculated that the grant amounts to a subsidy of €2.19 per resident, but at the same time, a theater that welcomes 30,000 visitors a year, employs 15 people, and without which a "gap in cultural services" would be created is at risk. Many residents agree. In response to an appeal by the Pro Weißwasser city councilors, they donated money that is being paid to the city, with the stipulation that it be used to support the Telux. As of Tuesday, a good €33,000 had been raised, three-quarters of the required amount. At least for this year, it looks as if the Telux can be saved.