Friedrich Merz’s bizarre AI video: SPD man has to apologize

This has never happened before in the Bundestag. When SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich stepped up to the microphone in the Bundestag on Wednesday, the first thing he promised was an apology to the opposition leader.

What had happened? In his response to the government statement by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), Friedrich Merz complained that a video of Merz that was manipulated was being further distributed by SPD politicians. “Since yesterday, AI-generated fake videos about me have been circulating online,” said Merz. “The fact that they are posted and forwarded by Social Democratic MPs gives a foretaste of the type of election campaign that you are obviously prepared to conduct here in Germany.”

Mützenich reacted immediately. “You know, I’m not on these platforms,” ​​he said to Merz: “If it’s true that colleagues in my group have used this questionable AI technology, then I will ensure that this MP joins in “Sorry to you.”

Above all, SPD Bundestag member Bengt Bergt, who comes from Schleswig-Holstein, probably broke out in a sweat at these words. Because it was he who posted on his Instagram account. You can see Merz speaking into the camera in a deceptively real voice.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we despise you! And we despise democracy,” says the Merz fake and then explains that he is only aiming for quick new elections in order to keep smaller parties out of the Bundestag and to do even better himself. The national anthem is played.

The Schleswig-Holstein CDU general secretary Lukas Kilian called the process “tasteless” and “undemocratic” on the short message service X. “We only know this style from the AfD,” Kilian wrote on Tuesday: “Anyone who shares videos of this type publicly or internally only helps to make the extremists even stronger.”

But Bergt initially appeared unmoved despite the criticism. He said on Tuesday that he was “surprised by the Union’s reaction.” The video was “satire” and labeled as such. In fact, the words “Caution: Artificial Incompetence” are small. It was a “parody of Merz’s position”.

Mützenich, who is said to run the parliamentary group tightly, is unlikely to let him get away with this excuse.

The CDU Schleswig-Holstein welcomed the announcement by the SPD parliamentary group leader. “I am grateful for Mr. Mützenich’s clear statement,” said General Secretary Lukas Kilian star: “Unfortunately, this clarity is completely lacking at the state level.” Distributing such deepfake videos about political opponents is simply not appropriate, says Kilian.

Of course, the Merz fake may not have been the last video of this kind to circulate in the federal election campaign.