Germany’s AKK rebuked over comments on internet campaigning

Critics accuse CDU’S leader of advocating online censorship

Annegret Kramp-karrenbauer, leader of Germany’s centreright CDU, faced a massive backlash on Tuesday after calling for tighter rules on politicking on the internet, with critics accusing her of advocating online censorship.

Her comments came after European elections in which the CDU and its main left-of-centre rival, the Social Democrats, slumped to their worst results in a national election since the second world war, as voters defected in their droves to the Greens.

Ms Kramp-karrenbauer, who succeeded Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democratic Union last December, admitted the party had made mistakes in the election campaign and failed to connect with younger voters.

She said it had failed to come up with an appropriate response to the “Fridays for Future” environmental protests and to a controversial video by prominent German Youtuber Rezo lambasting the CDU for its inaction on climate change. The video, which dominated the final days of campaigning for the Eu

ropean election, has been viewed nearly 13m times.

But in the same press conference, AKK, as she is universally known, also took aim at the 70 high-profile German Youtube influencers who called on supporters ahead of the election not to vote CDU or SPD.

Ms Kramp-karrenbauer asked what would have happened if 70 newspapers had issued a similar appeal. She said that would have been seen as a “clear attempt to influence public opinion” ahead of the election. German newspapers traditionally do not endorse particular parties or candidates before polls.

Ms Kramp-karrenbauer went on to ask whether rules on influencing opinion for analogue media should also apply to digital platforms. “This is a fundamental issue which we will have to talk about,” not only within the CDU but more broadly in German society, she said.

The comments proved hugely controversial, with critics accusing her of promoting censorship. Christian Lindner, leader of the liberal FDP party, said Ms Kramp-karrenbauer was “considering regulating the expression of opinions before elections”.