On Thursday, February 15th, mainstream media giants in Germany began a massive, coordinated campaign promoting diversity—except, of course, diversity of opinion—and condemning what they call the “far-right,” showing just how afraid the establishment is of the rise of the right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which is now polling at second place on national level, right behind the center-right Christian Democrat bloc (CDU/CSU).
A trip to “Together Land”
The campaign—named “#Zusammenland—Diversity makes us stronger”—begins with a colorful, double-page ad in newspapers and on digital outdoor advertising all throughout Germany, with the intention to continue using it in papers, public spaces, and social media for an indefinite time.
According to the press release of Ströer, the advertising agency tasked with coordinating the campaign, it was organized at the initiative of four legacy media giants—Die Zeit, Tagesspiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Handelsblatt Media Group.
Apart from the organizers, there are around 500 companies, foundations, and associations participating, and “taking a stand against right-wing extremism and committing to freedom, diversity, and a welcoming culture.”
The organizing publishers and media conglomerates are offering these companies and foundations an opportunity to integrate their logo into the campaign free of charge and ask them only to donate to certain charitable projects.
As the press release notes, the advertising space freed up for this campaign alone is worth “several million euros.”
There’s no official indication of whether the organizing companies were given any government support for doing this, but it’s hard to imagine they’d forgo millions of euros in ad revenue just to run expensive propaganda against a right-wing party just before the EU elections purely out of the goodness of their heart.
For AfD, it’s obvious that Olaf Scholz’s leftist government is in the background. The largest mainstream media organizations all benefit from government funds, the conservative party explained—meaning that it’s ultimately the German people who foot the bill for the #Zusammenland.
“The German government already allocated €1 billion exclusively for the fight against ‘extremism’ last year,” MEP Gunnar Beck, Vice-President of the Identity and Democracy group told The European Conservative.
“All major German companies are participating,” the MEP said. “This is an unprecedented move to intimidate people into not voting for [AfD], financed by taxpayers’ money.”
Orwellian doublespeak
At the same time, the German government is preparing new legislation, the “Democracy Promotion Act,” a vehicle to pour hundreds of millions worth of taxpayer funds into leftist organizations and giving them an official mandate for fighting “non-punishable”—or otherwise known as legal—hate speech on the internet, Exxpress reported.
“We want to take into account the fact that hatred on the internet also occurs below the criminal liability limit. Many enemies of democracy know exactly what is left of freedom of expression on the social media platforms,” Lisa Paus, Germany’s Green family minister explained. “As a federal government, we will review laws where necessary and readjust them if necessary.”
If this feels like the German government is boasting about waging a war against freedom of expression, it’s because it is.
The new legislation is not only meant to dramatically increase the share of taxpayer funds under the already existing “Demokratie leben!” financing framework—which last year awarded €182 million to over 700 leftist organizations and projects—but also to gradually roll out legal instruments that these organizations can use to take action against ‘hate speech’ that would be otherwise protected by law.
Fortunately, the Democracy Promotion Act might never leave the drafting table as the liberal FDP—the government’s smallest coalition partner—doesn’t like the idea of tinkering with the legal foundations of free speech, no matter how enthusiastic the other two ruling parties, the socialists (SDP) and the Greens are.
“The Democracy Promotion Act will not be realized in this form. I had doubts from the beginning because democracy can neither be prescribed nor rightly promoted with money,” FDP member Max Mordhorst said.
Bundestag Vice-President Wolfgang Kubicki, also from the FDP, was even more candid about the plans while taking a thinly-veiled jab at Paus: “One has to ask the question, who is actually more dangerous for our constitutional order: those who move within the limits of what is permitted, or those who want to limit the scope of what is permitted as they see fit.”
