The “Influence on the Vote”. It’s astonishing to see how this worn-out record continues to be played. The absurd heights of propaganda and reality are reached, creating an unpleasant, audible noise.
SPD Chairman Lars Klingbeil comments on a recent statement by Elon Musk, published in the World, where he equates Musk with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, “Both want to influence our elections and support the enemies of democracy in the AfD. They want to weaken Germany and plunge it into chaos.”
One could note that hardly anyone has done more to weaken Germany and plunge it into chaos than the current government, in which the SPD is significantly involved. However, this is not the decisive point here.
“Elon Musk is only trying what Vladimir Putin does” Klingbeil says, and the democracy in Germany is “massively threatened from the outside.”
What makes this so charming is that a new round of Correctiv “exposés” has been released, with another undercover operation involving AfD members. We remember: the last such number started a year ago and opened the year 2024 in German politics.
The previous story created a huge foam and was later shown to be not only illegal but also partially fabricated, but the German media haven’t stopped buying this kind of story, as it’s just before the federal election.
And, of course, it’s convenient to have another round of this kind of story to support the demand to ban the AfD (just as I wrote “Greens” instead of AfD, so strong is the wish in my mind). So, one could say, this is a rehearsal for those like Katrin Göring-Eckardt, a direct election campaign help for the Greens, who, after all, are struggling with the catastrophic consequences of the energy transition and the blossoming deindustrialization, which the Economy Minister Robert Habeck has so eagerly contributed to.
Yes, and that’s the joke. Not only is what’s being discussed at the said meeting, namely, the consideration of stripping naturalized citizens of their German citizenship, a topic that was only a few months ago proposed by the “democratic parties” as a condition for not supporting Israel and even traditionally Palestinian slogans like “From the river to the sea”, but what makes this kind of election campaign support so charming is that Correctiv, although it now largely finances its activities with state funds, was originally a project of the Soros Foundation, as the Spiegel openly admitted in 2017.
While a comment in a newspaper by Elon Musk is a malicious foreign influence on the German election campaign, the question of foreign influence in connection with a half-secretive propaganda instrument like Correctiv is not even raised. Presumably, because one would have to list all the influences from the US and would have no more space for other reports; and it would be very embarrassing to notice that also stipends and exchange programs are part of the “soft power” concept, let alone the classical Atlantic Bridge.
It’s only noticeable because the “classic”, deeply ingrained transatlantic election influence collides with what the soon-to-be-in-office government of Donald Trump says. This in turn makes the reaction to this comment particularly bizarre, as Musk is not just a private individual, but a person whom Donald Trump has designated for government positions, so it can be assumed that what he says in a German newspaper is not just a personal opinion. This in turn creates a real public interest in knowing this opinion.
It is obvious that it is already an influence on the German elections if a political figure from the US says something that does not align with the official German line. The pain this causes is noticeable, whether it is Mr. Klingbeil or that opinion editor of the World who quit because of this text by Musk. The origin of this pain, however, lies in the habit of taking every sentence from Washington for a kind of divine revelation and now being completely overwhelmed by the possibly required about-face.
Meanwhile, the whole number with the election influence is wearing out at an astonishing speed, at the latest when it became known after the great fuss about Romania that only a Romanian party had played a bad trick on another party, and there was no foreign actor in the game (except for the always manipulative EU, of course). After all, the influence that is most feared in relation to the election is not that of Musk or Trump or Putin, but that of reality. For in this reality, a lot of bills are still open, starting from Corona to the downfall of the German industry, and these could lead to extremely unwanted results.
But as for the collision of Musk and Correctiv, one can simply sit back and enjoy the show. If the American friends of these German election campaigners can hold back, the whole planet will not explode by January 20, the time after that will be certainly entertaining. For how loud will the outcry in the German press be when the US government officially publishes the whole swamp of manipulation and corruption around Corona? Bet on it, between January 20 and February 23, the German media will struggle to let as little as possible from Washington through, and the outcry about possible “election influence” will be ear-shattering.