During a televised debate on German public television last week in the run-up to federal elections, trained left-wing activists posing as “average” members of the public went on the attack during a Q&A session with Christian Democratic Union (CDU) chancellor candidate Armin Laschet.
Two school-aged girls, Maia and Leonie, were permitted to ask questions Laschet during the “election area” (Wahlarena) on ARD, which ran the debate in the German city of Lübeck.
However, the female students were not just students but committed climate activists who were especially trained for their appearance on the talk show by an extremist organization headed by Emily Laquer. She heads an openly communist, left-wing extremist organization, part of the “interventionist left.” The organization is also officially under observation from the Office of the Protection of the Constitution, which is tasked with monitoring radical groups and individuals that threaten the constitutional foundation of the German state.
The two girls, along with another activist, used the opportunity to go on the attack against Laschet. Although Laschet was supposed to be fielding questions, Maia directed more of an accusation against him.
“Your climate policy has been a catastrophe in recent years, marked by blatant wrong decisions and scandals!” said Maia to Laschet.
Questions are now being asked how the activists were selected for the discussion, and who among the moderators was potentially behind organizing the attempt to embarrass Laschet in the run-up to the elections.
“What is this ARD? During your Wahlareana, specially-trained leftist activists were invited to let loose on Laschet. Emily Lacquer, a leftist radical according to the Office of the Protection of the Constitution, is openly happy,” wrote Philip Plicket, a journalist and author, on Twitter.
Plicket added photos of Twitter messages between Lacquer and the activist she recruited, who were celebrating on the social media platform.
Laquer wrote, “The 15-year-old Maia Elisabeth confronted Armin Laschet today at 8:15 p.m. on the ARD Vote Areana. This incredible activist from Fridays For Future Hamburg I got to know during the last “Hard but left” talk show training workshop. Because social meida is awesome, all of you should show your support!”
Maia responded to Laquer, writing, “Thanks to that training, I was super prepared to finish him [Laschet] off,” to which Laquer responded with raised fist emojis.
Laquer welcomes visitors on her homepage in a friendly manner: “I’m Emily, an activist and leftist media strategist from Hamburg, St. Pauli. I dream of the good life, where everything belongs to everyone, and we finally leave the madness of the climate crisis, the Mediterranean migrants dying, Nazis, and capitalism behind us.“
Laquer boasted that three of her activists that she trained were on the show to make the “right bubble go nuts.”
Luisa Neubauer, the spokesperson of Fridays For Future, immediately congratulated Laquer and her organization on Twitter on the successful action and demanded talk show training for everyone.
ARD has come under fire for what appeared to be an effort to stack a number of left-wing activists among the Laschet’s questioners during the program.
Financing behind the agency
Emily Laquer’s activist agency is financed by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, which is the foundation of the Left Party (Die Linke), and the Left Media Academy (LiMA), which is based at Franz-Mehring-Platz 1 in Berlin where the “New Germany“ newsroom is based. Before 1990, New Germany was the central organ of the SED in the German Democratic Republic of East Germany, then the central organ of the Party of Democratic Socialism/Left. The board of directors of the LiMA includes Michael Stöckel, a left-wing politician from Berlin Neukölln and an employee of the left-wing member of the Bundestag Klaus Ernst.
The Student Committees (AStA) of the university and the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences are also working eagerly with the agency and, according to the agency’s website, are donating money so that the talk show training courses are free for activists. The websites of the Hamburg AStAs resemble a left-wing parallel world that consists only of the climate crisis, refugees, racism, gender oppression, and threats of war fueled by capitalism.
The public service NDR and the state universities of Hamburg must now be asked how they will deal with the left-wing extremist offspring in the future and how much influence they want to allow them to continue. An answer to that would also be helpful.
Title image: People walk past election posters of the three chancellor candidates, from right, Armin Laschet, Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Annalena Baerbock, German Green party (Die Gruenen) and Olaf Scholz, Social Democratic Party (SPD), at a street in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, Thursday, Sept. 23, 2021 three days before the General election on Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
