Armin Laschet’s dealings with a “lateral thinker” at an election campaign event had caused outrage at the beginning of the month. Now the CDU is using the scene in an election commercial. There is harsh criticism.
After the publication of a CDU election advertisement with a scene of lateral thinkers, politicians from several parties are outraged.
The spot shows in a short sequence how a man jumped onto the stage at an election event for Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet (CDU) in Erfurt at the beginning of September. Laschet then let him speak into his microphone. In the CDU it is said that the video is very well received by the members. The scene with the “lateral thinker” was remembered from the election campaign. It shows that Laschet does not avoid any conflict.
The man, a supporter of the “lateral thinkers” movement observed in parts by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, complained at the time about Corona measures. In the election commercial, this scene is underlaid with the statement that the CDU also stands for talking to those “who have a critical attitude” – “especially with them”. A similar scene can be found in an earlier CDU election commercial. There, however, the same sentences are spoken about images of environmental and climate activists.
The former chairman of the German Ethics Council, Peter Dabrock, was appalled that the CDU was sticking to the commercial “after the terrible terrorist murder of Idar-Oberstein”. On Saturday, a mask opponent shot a gas station employee there. The Greens health expert Janosch Dahmen wrote on Twitter that the video was “a mockery for everyone who is fighting the virus with solidarity and commitment”. The Vice-President of the EU Parliament, Katarina Barley (SPD), criticized in a tweet that the CDU was trying to condescend “lateral thinkers” and fish on the right.
The man, a former bus driver from Thuringia, became known in the “lateral thinker” scene through an action in September 2020. At that time he asked children on the school bus to take off their masks. On his channel in the messenger service Telegram, he shows himself next to a right-wing extremist who has become known as a “people’s teacher” and compares the Corona measures with the extermination policy of National Socialism. Just a few days ago he shared a call to “chase away” a vaccination bus in the Stuttgart region.
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