A controversy has emerged in Leipzig over mysterious handouts promoting the Left’s direct candidate, Sören Pellmann, without a sender or imprint.
His challenger from the Greens, Bundestagsabgeordnete Paula Piechotta, has raised severe allegations. Anonymous election advertising is, in her view, illegal for good reasons: “It’s dangerous for democracy” she told the Spiegel, citing the possibility of spreading false information and hate speech. “Who uses such methods prioritizes their own advancement over the trust in democracy. By doing so, they disqualify themselves for any political office.”
Pellmann, who, along with Heidi Reichinnek, leads the Left’s group in the Bundestag, won the Leipzig II electoral district in 2021 against Piechotta. Similar flyers were present even then. The message of the currently circulating handouts, he claims, is supported by him, but he has no connection to them: “They come from a group that is concerned about democracy and wants to counter the rightward shift.