opinion
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expresses her unhappiness and Twitter shoots freely. But even at the Foreign Office, the situation is being handled much less confidently than is necessary.
The resignation of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is being called for on Twitter, and at the time of writing this hashtag is even a top trend in Germany ahead of #Foreign Minister and #High Treason in fourth place. The Foreign Office, on the other hand, speaks of Russian disinformation. And as is so often the case these days, cooking is too hot on both sides. But one after anonther.
Baerbock was at a panel discussion in Prague on Wednesday and spoke there about the Ukraine war. The following sentence, which she recited in English, is now being slapped on her ears on social networks: “If I promise the people in Ukraine that we will stand by you as long as you need us, then I want to keep it , no matter what my German voters think, but I want to stick to what I promised the people of Ukraine.” Once also in the English original: “If I give the promise to people in Ukraine, we stand with you as long as you need us, then I want to deliver, no matter what my German voters think, but I want to deliver to the people of Ukraine.”
An excerpt from the event showing this sentence was shared thousands of times via Twitter, including by accounts that are on the Russian side of the argument in the Ukraine conflict. German secret services assume that Russia is using bots to create atmosphere in social networks. Now Peter Ptassek from the Federal Foreign Office shared a screenshot of one of the distributors, who calls himself the “Central Investigation Office” on Twitter, and wrote: “The classic: a video edited together in a meaningful way, boosted by pro-Russian accounts and the instant cyber court is ready, disinformation off the shelf. Whether we can be split so cheaply? I don’t think so.”
So much for the event.
From what we know, it is very likely that Russia is deliberately disinformation on social networks, including in German. It is also very likely, if only because of the long range, that in this case, too, among the propagators are those that are controlled from Russia. [Meine Kollegin Ellen Ivits wird Ihnen hier mehr dazu berichten.]
The Foreign Office makes it too easy for itself
Nevertheless, the Federal Foreign Office is overshooting the mark here when it wants to dismiss the criticism of Baerbock’s statements as clumsy Russian disinformation. That’s too easy to do. The harsh accusation of disinformation should be made when really false, manipulated things are circulated. However, Baerbock did say that she would like to stand by her promise to the Ukrainians, “regardless of what my German voters think”. This sentence came out so well that it was not distorted and not excessively “taken out of context”. And it’s an unwise sentence for a Secretary of State.
In my eyes, she wanted to make it clear that she wanted to stand by her word out of conviction, out of an attitude. But that’s my interpretation, others may understand it differently. Add the slightly derogatory hand movement and the PR is at least bad. A German politician who appears to put foreign interests ahead of her constituents is fodder for reactionary forces.
But, and this is a big but, the excitement on the other side is just as overblown. Yes, this sentence is unwise and one can criticize it. But if you want to do it right, then you’re welcome to watch Baerbock’s entire performance. She also talks about the worries and fears of Germans about not being able to pay energy prices in winter. She explains how you have to help with relief so that the sanctions can be maintained and that there is a lot of convincing to be done.
So to accuse her of not caring about her German voters is at least unfair. The demand for a resignation almost ludicrously exaggerated. However, calls for the resignation of politicians are a trend on Twitter. As a rule, these demands disappear again as quickly as they came.
Both sides overshoot the mark
The fact that Baerbock did not express herself wisely in this one sentence can also be explained at least in part with her expandable knowledge of English. The lack of eloquence in a foreign language can sometimes lead to unhappy expressions. Of course, that’s not a reason to resign. But the Foreign Office would be well advised to take criticism seriously and not fobb it off with a blanket and arrogant accusation. This really pushes the division forward, which the author, bizarrely enough, the Ministry Commissioner for Strategic Communications, actually denounces in his tweet.
Source: Stern
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