Julia Klöckner wants to differentiate the CDU from the AfD – and is doing everything wrong

It’s election time again. Politicians everywhere are trying to make their ideas and those of their parties heard. The CDU politician Julia Klöckner is also one of them and came up with the idea of ​​posting on the social media service Instagram. “For what you want, you don’t have to vote for the AfD. There is a democratic alternative for that: the CDU,” it said. Shortly afterwards, Klöckner felt compelled to respond to the numerous reactions, delete the posting and formulate a clarification.

‘What’s the problem?’, one might ask. A politician from a conservative party wants to differentiate herself and her positions from a far-right party. However, it doesn’t take too much understanding of the language to understand the content as it could be meant: What you hope for from the AfD, you can also get from us. This possibility of interpretation – even if it really only happened by accident – contradicts other positions of the CDU and provokes criticism and malice. Both among AfD supporters, but especially among people who reject their positions.

Klöckner then deleted the post, which is generally considered to be a lack of confidence in dealing with errors. However, many social media users saved this beforehand, so it is at least still available as a screenshot.

She then explains: “The fact that leftists are accusing me of wanting to form a coalition with the AfD” is “infamous.” She doesn’t address the obvious errors in the formulation, but rather says that “leftists” intentionally wanted to misunderstand her words. In her attempt to clarify, she writes: “We defend ourselves against those who question our democracy,” and adds in the descriptive text, among other things: “[…] Anyone who votes for extremists is not weakening #Red and #Green, but rather strengthening them.” She has at least made it clear who she sees – alongside the AfD – as opponents.

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