Dresden Administrative Court: Funding application for the work of the Serbski Sejm remains rejected for the time being

Five years ago, Smy e.V. applied for funding from the Foundation for the Sorbian People to support the work of the Serbski Sejm with an office. The foundation rejected the application at the time. Smy e.V. appealed against the rejection, not because of the rejection itself, but because of the insufficient reasoning, before the Dresden Administrative Court. The court dismissed the appeal after the hearing on 18 November 2025.

The Serbski Sejm regrets this decision, but points out that the court ignored key points of the foundation's funding practice. This was the focus of the hearing – and it is precisely here that serious contradictions arise which the court was unable to resolve.

During the hearing and in the judgement https://www.medienservice.sachsen.de/medien/news/1092590, it was clarified that

• Although the foundation supports the work of Domowina, it explicitly does not regard these funds as support for political work. This is not part of the foundation's purpose.

• Domowina's role as a political representative is ‘imposed from outside’. It does express political views, but only when asked to do so from outside.

• Since Domowina does not receive funding for political work, the Serbski Sejm is also not entitled to such funding for reasons of equal treatment.

The basic conclusion is that there is a Serbski Sejm which, as the representative of the Sorbian people and a potential recipient of state funding, is not questioned by either the Foundation for the Sorbian People or the Administrative Court.

However, this gives rise to three conflicts:

1. State laws do not provide for political representation of the Sorbian people. Nevertheless, the state needs political statements from the Sorbian people and asks for them. Until now, it has received answers from an association without democratic legitimacy. The Serbski Sejm has closed this political gap since 2018. In accordance with the right of peoples to self-determination and democratic principles, the Sorbian people need a freely elected political representation. With the Serbski Sejm, they have such a representation. The Saxon Sorbian Act must be amended accordingly.

2. The state must recognise that the political work of the Sorbian people must be promoted in the same way as the other areas mentioned in the foundation's purpose for the Sorbian people. It must make it clear that democratic political culture is also a fundamental part of Sorbian culture – or supplement the areas of promotion. The foundation's purpose must be updated accordingly – unless the state wishes to regulate and promote the Serbski Sejm as the political representation of the Sorbian people in another way.

3. The Domowina, Bund Lausitzer Sorben e.V. clearly defines political work as one of its main tasks (footnote: Chapter 7 ‘Political Participation’ in the Domowina programme; https://www.domowina.de/fileadmin/Assets/Domowina/Material_Domowina_Bundesvorstand/programDomowina2025dt150124.pdf ). It already uses a considerable portion of the funding provided by the Foundation for the Sorbian People for its political work. In the interests of equal treatment, the work of the Serbski Sejm must also be supported.

This raises the question of whether the foundation has been misappropriating public funds for years according to its own stated criteria.

These unresolved fundamental issues are not minor points, but concern the core of Sorbian self-government and the legal certainty of state minority policy.

Smy e.V. will carefully examine the ruling with the Serbski Sejm and discuss further legal steps. At the same time, the foundation and the state governments that support it are called upon to finally clarify the legal role of the political representation of the Sorbs. A democratically elected parliament must not be permanently forced into a legal vacuum.