Mud, glorious mud: beloved by the MSM mudslingers

 

Firstly: the ‘housekeeping’, i. e. the customary notification of the product of our Westminster Press: “Newspaper headlines: ‘No cash for repairs’ and Starmer’s tax pledge” (link). Nothing new then. So I’ll look instead at a political scandal in Germany, in Bavaria, to be precise, because it provides both a beautiful contrast to our tired political scene and a lesson about MSM and political pundits being the same everywhere, be i Westminster, be it Berlin.

The political scandal in question filled the German papers and kept political punditry at boiling point. It is a perfect example for the German MSM not understanding the mood of their readers, nationally as well as in Bavaria. It documents the hybris of a newspaper, making themselves into judge and jury; the hysteria of the clique of German government politicians and the Berlin MSM, and the ice-cold calculation of a politician, i.e. the Bavarian PM Markus Söder.

Firstly and briefly: some background. Germany is a federation of ‘Laender’, similar to US States. These Laender have the PMs, and there are elections every four years. Bavaria has always been a strictly conservative country. Their governing party, the CSU, is the sister party of the CDU. On the 8th October 2023 the Bavarians will go to the polls and postal voting starts today.

It so happens that there is one other conservative party in Bavaria which governs in coalition with the CSU. This is the “Freie Wähler” (FW), a Bavarian party which so far only stands in Bavarian elections. The leader of the FW is Hubert ‘Hubsi’ Aiwanger. Btw, this is not the AfD and they are not affiliated. Finally, the Bavarian Green Party aims to become the coalition partner of the CSU, the Bavarian SPD and Liberal Party have no chance.

And so to the scandal. At the weekend before last, the German paper “Die Sueddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) published a report, accusing Mr Aiwanger of having written a disgusting leaflet, making a joke of the Holocaust. In German politics, this is practically a political death sentence. Inevitably, the Berlin MSM and the German government, a.k.a. ‘Die Ampel’ because its a coalition of Red (SPD), Green and Liberals (Yellow), were unisono calling for Mr Aiwanger’s head – six weeks before the Bavarian election. Also calling for Mr Aiwanger’s head was the Sister party of the CSU, the CDU well known for their former head, Ms Angela Merkel. 

This however is not the actual scandal. It turned out that the leaflet was written 35 years ago when Mr Aiwanger and his brother were 16 year old boys. It was actually written by Mr Aiwanger’s brother and Hubsi had it in his school backpack because he said he was trying to collect them before worse could happen. He did not tell his school head teacher that his brother wrote this thing – one doesn’t grass up one’s brother. As school punishment he had to write an extra essay on the Holocaust – and that was that. No police were called, he wasn’t thrown out of the school – nothing.

So how did the SZ learn about this? Well, there was this teacher, now long retired, who was a Lefty, affiliated with the SPD. He provided this leaflet – after 35 years! – because he wanted to get rid of Aiwanger. He even asked some of his former pupils to please provide ‘evidence’ of Aiwanger’s terrible Nazi attitude in school. Anonymously.

This didn’t play well at all in Bavaria where people were outraged that a teacher broke all privacy laws by handing in this leaflet. Bavarians also asked why this leaflet and the whole scandal suddenly surfaced after 35 years, when in all the years until now it never seems to have mattered. They observed that the Bavarian Greens would dearly love to become coalition partner in Bavaria …

Immediately, the German government leaders demanded an instantaneous resignation of Mr Aiwanger who happens to be Bavarian Vice-PM, and of course his immediate resignation from his post as leader of the FW. After all, they said, this scandal is damaging Germany’s standing in the world … and never mind that ‘The World’ has been and is blissfully oblivious.

During the past week, more and more absurd accusations were made, always anonymously, for example that someone had seen Hubsi give the Hitler salute, or that he carried “Mein Kampf” in his school backpack. The pack howled that it was unacceptable when Mr Aiwanger said he couldn’t remember exactly what happened, after 35 years. They howled when his brother gave a statement that he, not Hubsi, had written this leaflet. 

Meanwhile, the Bavarian PM was carefully maneuvering between providing suitable outrage and electioneering calculations. He knew full well that coalition with the Greens would be out of the question and would lose him the elections – something the Berlin government fervently hoped for.

And so the denouement yesterday. Söder had aske Hubsi to give him answers on 25 questions – ridiculous questions, but something had to be done – and in a press conference yesterday declared that he is now, finally, standing by his Vice PM, won’t sack him, and won’t go for a coalition with the Greens. Oh dear … Political Berlin was not happy …

The German national press and the political pundits ,like our Westminster MSM, regard themselves as sole arbiters. When they finally noticed that, contrary to their expectations, their readers were not having it and stood at Aiwangers side, asking why something that happened 35 years ago was now important, why a lack of memory was so heinous in this case but not in the case of the Chancellor who was allowed to get away with ‘forgetfulness’ when he was involved in several financial scandals as Finance Minister under Merkel, they started ‘editing’ and moderating comment posts. 

When the mud simply didn’t stick as expected, the pundits and ‘experts’ bemoaned, day by day, that Mr Aiwanger was declaring himself the victim of a witch hunt, that the Berlin press and the Greens were demanding his head for very transparent political reasons. That was deemed to be unacceptable. Yesterday the Berlin top government politicians accused Mr Aiwanger of playing the victim when he defended himself rather than vanishing from the political scene ‘like a man with contenance’.

Meanwhile, the German comment posters made quite clear where they stood – with Hubsi – and criticised these Berlin political pundits in no uncertain terms. They pointed out that using anonymous accusations form people who suddenly ‘remember’, after 35 years, are useless when these same anonymous accusers had done nothing, either four years ago when the FW became so successful, nor in the years before. They asked how come this transparent attempt at influencing elections was even published by the SZ when even the deeply red&green political magazine ‘Der Spiegel’ refused to publish this material because it was so obviously useless.

It remains to be seen if the calculation of the Bavarian PM, Mr Söder, will bear fruit. He after all waited a whole week and did not stand with his Vice PM when this ‘scandal’ first hit the papers at the weekend before last. Meanwhile, the Bavarian elections circus is in full swing. Unlike here, the politicians are speaking to the people – in beer gardens. Hubsi is getting standing ovation wherever he appears. Bavarian Greens are being booed when they do dare to enter such beer gardens. 

The lesson to be learned: MSM and political pundits are the same all over, be it here, be it in Germany. Political mudslingers are the same everywhere, using transparently malicious accusations, unsubstantiated, in the hope that something will surely stick. Politicians here and there are bowing to the mighty pundits rather than their electorate – but clearly not in Bavaria where being unashamedly conservative is something to be proud of.

That’s all I have for today. I wish we had a Hubsi Aiwanger, a FW, and a political scene like in Bavaria where politicians visit beer gardens for their electioneering. Have a good day

 

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