The German socialists (SPD) are desperately seeking new ways to improve their standing after the electorate roundly rejected their political agenda—especially relating to mass migration—in the February elections.
An outright ban on the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) opposition is, of course, one option. Another is funnelling taxpayer cash into the coffers of media organisations that can be trusted to put a positive spin on the SPD’s flaws.
Such considerations appear now to have made their way into ongoing coalition talks, in which Friedrich Merz’s CDU has already proved happy to ‘cede ground’ further to the left.
Die Stimme Berlins reports that the SPD is calling for a new “media innovation fund” which would provide state support to what the paper described as “reliable” and “trustworthy” publications. That is, reliable and trustworthy according to the state.
AfD Bundestag member Götz Frömming said this, in effect, would mean papers that are “loyal to the [governing] party line,” while journalist Henning Rosenbusch added that ‘reliable’ translated in this case to “preemptively obedient government propaganda.”
Reports also note that the fund would be intended to support these selected media companies while they improve their digital arms—which, of course, is where influencing can today take place most effectively—as well as to combat ‘disinformation.’
This closely follows a slew of criticism surrounding accusations that the main U.S. aid agency’s (USAID) funds were used to deliver particular political outcomes in Europe, as well as calls by leftist Brussels officials for taxpayers to fund, effectively, pro-European Union propaganda.
Apollo News claims that the SPD demand is currently being met with “displeasure” from CDU negotiators. But with Merz, the chancellor-in-waiting, hoping to forge a coalition by April 20th, it is not at all difficult to imagine the ‘conservatives’ backing down.