A company affiliated with the AfD is launching a smear campaign against the Greens before the general election. They fight back – and get support.
Update from Friday, August 13th, 2021, 10.45 a.m.: The abuse campaign against the Greens continues to cause discussions. In addition to expressions of solidarity by the SPD and the CDU (see update from Thursday, 3:30 p.m.), there are now first demands from politicians. Jan Philipp Albrecht (Greens), Environment Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, appealed to the Ströer company to put pressure on the client. If that does not happen, one has to talk about the withdrawal of public advertising contracts, so Albrecht.
“If Ströer does not disclose who financed the smear campaign against the Greens published by them, this should be used as an opportunity in every municipality and every municipal company not to give this company any more orders,” the minister said on Twitter. The initiators of the campaign are an AfD-affiliated company (see initial report).
+++ 3.30 p.m.: The poster campaign against the Greens, which was mainly used by the Ströer advertising company, continues to cause a stir a few weeks before the general election. Now SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil has assured the Greens that the Social Democrats will support them in the fight against “right-wing rubbish”. “Democrats stick together,” wrote Klingbeil on Twitter: “Separate on the matter, united against the right.” On a red-green tile was written “Separated in colors, united in the matter against the law”. SPD Vice Kevin Kühnert tweeted: “Solidarity with @Die_Gruenen and everyone it hits next.” The Campact network speaks of a “mendacious frontal attack on our democracy”.
CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak joined the criticism of the abuse. “Part of a fair election campaign is to speak out when it is not against your own party: The filth that is currently being poured out on the Greens by AfD and NPD-affiliated circles & is being fired with a poster campaign is disgusting. Full solidarity @MiKellner “, wrote Ziemiak to the Green Federal Managing Director.
Greens defend themselves against abusive campaign: “Fear of the right is palpable”
Update from Thursday, August 12th, 2021, 10.45 a.m.: The Greens have been the target of a real smear campaign for several days. In various major cities in Germany, large posters can be seen raising the mood against the party, for example in Frankfurt (see first report).
Now the Greens are also commenting on the “right-wing dirt campaign […] AfD-affiliated actors with dubious financing,” as Michael Kellner put it. Legally, there is nothing to be done about it, wrote the federal executive director of the Greens in an email to supporters of the party. The fear of the right is palpable. But you won’t let it push you back a millimeter and, on the contrary, you will fight twice as hard, hang up twice as many posters and knock on twice as many doors. “No fake news campaign, no fake quotes or pictures, no real disinformation, no dirty election campaign will stop us,” wrote Kellner.
# GrünerMist: AfD-affiliated company starts dirt campaign before the federal election in 2021
First report from Wednesday, August 11th, 2021, 4 p.m .: Frankfurt – A company close to the AfD has started a hate campaign against the Greens around Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock. Six weeks before the federal election in 2021, posters with discrediting slogans are displayed in numerous German cities, including Frankfurt and Düsseldorf.
On large-format green areas, behind withered sunflowers, terms such as “paternalism”, “prohibitions”, “eco-dictatorship” and “expropriation terror” as well as the campaign title # GrünerMist can be read.
On a website of the same name, the initiators are clearly rushing against the politics of the Greens. “Green in power means ‘climate protection’ planned economy and eco-socialism, management of shortages and the destruction of industry, prohibition regimes and state control down to the most personal areas of life,” it says there. And further: “Green rule means ruined state finances, tax usury and mass immigration and the final dissolution of the democratic nation-state”.
# GrünerMist: AfD-affiliated company launches smear campaign against Greens
In a video, activist and platform operator Hagen Grell brings the Greens closer to China. Under her government, among other things, there could be a restriction in child policy, said Grell. Taxes on children are conceivable, following the example of China’s one-child policy, with which Green politicians sympathized. He also brought the Greens closer to communist dictators such as Pol Pot and Stalin.
Grell speaks of a “repressive, communist” policy. The Greens wanted to introduce a “climate points system” based on the Chinese social credit system, claims Grell. For example, anyone who has traveled too much or has too many children is no longer allowed to travel or own a car according to the Greens’ plans, according to Grell.
Politicians are also explicitly denigrated. Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock is listed under the tab “People” as “impostor” and “copyist”. Claudia Roth is described as an “anti-German multicultural and Turkey enthusiast” and “Mullah friend”, Cem Özdemir as a “career migrant of the first hour”.
Federal election 2021: Annalena Baerbock is referred to as an impostor in the smear campaign
Conservare Communication GmbH, based in Hamburg, is behind the smear campaign. This is also the editor of the AfD supporter magazine “Deutschland-Kurier”. Numerous MPs and AfD employees write for this. The managing director and sole shareholder is David Bendels, who in the past has repeatedly made appearances with top politicians from the AfD such as Alice Weidel and Alexander Gauland.
Bendels also appears as the spokesman for the # GrünerMist campaign. In 2016 he left the CSU after a dispute during an appearance at the AfD. There he was one of the founders of the conservative awakening. The 36-year-old is also chairman of the “Association for the Preservation of the Rule of Law and Civil Liberties”, which was founded in September 2016. Research by WDR, NDR and “Süddeutscher Zeitung” had shown that there are close links between the association and the AfD. According to a report by t-online.de, the association had put millions of euros into posters and spots as well as a newspaper-like “extra sheet” to advertise the AfD.
# GrünerMist: How the campaign against the Greens is financed is unclear
It is still unclear where the money for the current “citizens’ campaign” against the Greens comes from. It is “independent” and “non-partisan”, it says on the website. The website and large posters are financed by donations from medium-sized companies and “committed citizens” who “have set themselves the goal of preventing another large-scale socialist experiment on German soil”, writes Bendels, who is soliciting donations for further campaigns. However, no bank details are given on the website, only an email address.
According to t-online.de, David Bendels also spoke of numerous individual donations in 2016. Lobbycontrol had stated, however, that the association was initiated by anonymous large donors and that the activities were “probably largely financed by large donors”. At that time, the association cooperated with the Swiss agency Goal, which had also supported AfD spokesman Jörg Meuthen with campaigns. Because of this illegal party donation, the AfD had to pay a fine of 270,000 euros.
