“TheRepublic”
Union members found a campaign agency against the “left-wing drift” in Germany
Caroline Bosbach is part of the “TheRepublic” campaign.
© Jens Krick / Picture Alliance
Several Union members have set up an agency for conservative campaigns. “TheRepublic” wants to take action against the “left mainstream” and is supported by Friedrich Merz, among others.
A group of CDU and CSU politicians want to use their own campaign agency to promote conservative issues. According to the founding call, the agency should be named “TheRepublic“Set conservative accents in the public debate, as the” Bild “newspaper reported on Thursday. The supporters of the project include the CDU greats Wolfgang Bosbach and Friedrich Merz. Dorothee Bär is said to be, according to founding member Armin Petschner-Multari do not belong to the supporters, as the media had initially reported.
“Our mission is based on the liberal-conservative understanding of values,” quotes “Bild” from the agency’s founding paper. “We stand for responsible citizens, a lean yet efficient state and well-fortified democracy.” The organization sees itself “here as the extra-parliamentary voice of the CDU and CSU”, it said in a statement. “We stand up to the anti-business and civic climate and give those who keep Germany going a strong voice.” According to its own statements, the project has broad support from the Union.
1000 freelancers and EUR 200,000 start-up capital
At a kick-off event in Leipzig at the end of August, the CDU politician Friedrich Merz promoted the project. The Hamburg CDU boss Christoph Ploß, the CDU’s middle class association, and parliamentary group vice-president Carsten Linnemman are among the supporters. According to “TheRepublic”, Merz said that he had followed the development of this project with interest and that he wished the initiators much success in terms of the diversity of opinion in Germany. “The bourgeois camp has to get out of the defensive,” emphasized Ploß. “To do this, we have to break new ground in some cases.”
Armin Petschner-Multari, who has previously equipped the CSU’s YouTube channel, is heavily involved in the planning. In addition, Bosbach’s daughter Caroline Bosbach should also be part of the network’s management team. Petschner-Multari emphasized on Twitter that the campaign “was not founded by Union politicians. “Our core supporters come from the SME and Economic Union. “
With the campaign agency, the politicians want to advertise “for freedom and against paternalism”. They not only spread their messages via the website of the same name, but also via video on social networks. As “The Pioneer” and the “Frankfurter Rundschau” report, around 200,000 euros in start-up capital and 1,000 freelance workers will be available.
Reactions on the net
The first reactions were not long in coming. Numerous users commented on the Union campaign on Twitter. Many of them see it as a rapprochement with the extreme wing of the AfD.
“With #TheRepublic receive #CDU#CSU an authoritarian right-wing campaign platform that is open to conspiracy ideology at any time and that will always shift discourses to wherever people like # Measures and #Trump they would like to have “, comments one user.
For some, this raises the question of why the CDU parliamentary group is reluctant to swap places with the FDP.
Others position themselves clearly on the side of the campaign – and express criticism of the media in Germany. “#TheRepublic is the last wake-up call to the political left to get their asses up and finally to oppose the right in terms of media technology. At 1Prozent and Co we haven’t woken up yet, “tweet representatives from Union Watch. And one user adds:”#TheRepublic goes really viral. Now leftists just have to accept that there are other opinions and the world would have become a little better again “