The German Election of Chancellor 2017

... an incredible, clear-eyed history of recent German affairs by Glenn Diesen.

Diesen mentions Herder, who characterizes German society ‘das volk’ in such a lovely way—and Walter accuses him of perverting it with some Nazi interpretation with no evidence whatsoever.

The German election campaign has become a magnet for fake news and AI-generated propaganda as foreign actors seek to boost the right wing. The attacks are becoming more sophisticated, and are no longer coming just from Russia, but from the U.S. as well.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz allegedly has one. So, too, does Green Party co-chair Franziska Brantner. A multi-million-dollar villa in California.

Scholz, according to the narrative, owns a choice estate in the Hollywood Hills – or did, at least, until it was burned down in the fires. That, at least, was the claim espoused by a recent video, complete with aerial shots of a spectacular mansion.

Many videos currently circulating on social media channels, particularly TikTok, are reinforcing a popular cliché: namely that those at the top earn millions and betray the interests of ordinary people.

The problem, though, is that the videos are complete and utter fabrications.

Russian-Produced Fakes
On Elon Musk’s channel X, a clip is circulating showing a uniformed police officer who introduces himself as Cameron. He says he is happy he works in the United Kingdom and not in Germany. According to information received by his agency, he says, a series of major terrorist attacks are being prepared in Germany during the country’s snap parliamentary elections in February. "Share this video with your friends and family," he says.

This video, too, is a fake, likely produced in Russia. The creators took clips from real videos and, as the activists from the fake-news awareness group Antibot4Navalny learned, then used artificial intelligence to distort the voices.

The internet is currently full of countless other manipulations, all with a single goal: to trigger chaos and uncertainty ahead of German elections in an effort to strengthen the political fringes.

There have likely never before been so many and such extensive external attempts to influence a German parliamentary election. Previous elections, to be sure, have also seen their fair share of fake, Russian-controlled social media accounts spreading lies and half-truths. Since then, though, technology has become far more sophisticated. Artificial intelligence tools are making it easier and easier to produce fake videos and put false words into the mouths of politicians.

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Former German chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised Friedrich Merz, her successor as leader of the country’s conservatives, for pushing through proposals on migration and asylum with the backing of the far-right AfD.

In a rare intervention in public affairs since stepping down from politics in December 2021, Merkel said that Merz, who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor, had in effect performed a U-turn.

On her website, she wrote that Merz, head of the centre-right CDU/CSU alliance, had said in a speech last November that he was against passing policies with the support of the generally shunned AfD, even it was by “accident”.

She said she stood by the longstanding conviction that there should never be any association between the mainstream parties and the AfD.

“I think it is wrong to no longer feel bound to this proposal, thereby allowing a majority with the votes of the AfD in a vote in the German Bundestag for the first time on 29 January 2025,” she added.

Wednesday’s vote was unprecedented. For the first time the AfD, second in polls ahead of the election on 23 February, was instrumental in helping a mainstream party towards a parliamentary majority. The pro-business FDP also contributed to the motion’s success.
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Tens of thousands of people marched in Germany on Sunday to protest against the decision by the centre-right leader – and frontrunner in a looming election – to send to parliament proposals for tough migration rules that received the backing of a far-right party.

Angry protesters in Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich said that Friedrich Merz and his Christian Democrats (CDU) broke Germany’s unwritten post-Nazi promise by all democratic parties to never pass any rule or resolution in parliament with the support of far-right, nationalist parties such as Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Police estimated that 160,000 people attended a rally in Berlin. Organisers put the turnout at 200,000.

Hundreds of protesters temporarily blocked offices of the CDU in different cities. In Cologne, people protested on 350 boats on the Rhine, the German news agency dpa reported. The boats lined up in front of the city’s skyline with protesters holding banners with slogans such as “No racism” and “For democracy and diversity”.
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