Peter Boehringer, August 1, 2023, Constitution Defense

AfD Kompakt, August 1, 2023. 

It is not yet four weeks that we of the AfD national committee needed to warn the President of the BfV [Federal Office for the Defense of the Constitution] of fully unfair election recommendations, neither appropriate nor permitted to his office. At the beginning of July, he already publicly insinuated, “Not alone to the Constitution Defense” does it “belong to reduce the polling results of the AfD”; and “I believe this is a circumstance [of the AfD] which German voters should also have in the back of the mind.” 

And the present, renewed, over-reaching, false statements, in no way substantiated by Haldenwang during the current nominations convention for the European election, are by us in no case acceptable. Haldenwang, with his babble of “extreme right conspiracy theories”, wants to have direct influence, quasi “live”, in an important intra-party process, and again express a warning to citizens against an AfD election. That is plainly not permitted according to Art 21(1) GG [Basic Law], Art 11 EMRK [European Convention on Human Rights] and §16(1) BverfSchG [Federal Constitution Defense Law]. 

That the German government attempts to manipulate, well beforehand, elections in Europe by means of its government defense authorities, is obviously unworthy of a democratic state of law. Haldenwang attempts to one-sidedly influence the sovereigns’ voting behavior. That a Geheimdienst [intelligence service] of this type meddles in the democratic determination process, would seem to be unique among democracies – and is of course illegal. Already in 1977, the Federal Constitutional Court quite unmistakably forbade precisely such conduct (BVerfG, Urt. V. 2.3.1977, Az 2 BvE 1/76). And also the founding legislation, BVerfSchG §16(1), quite clearly ordered: “The BfV is not to be an institution of political formation”. Neither the giving of election recommendations nor commentaries on current democratic processes is a duty of the Geheimdienstes. 

The accusations again raised by Haldenwang concerning so-called “extremist right conspiracy theories”  were already a part of the charges against the AfD of the Constitution Defense report of 2022. The President of the BfV was expressly questioned on this in the Interior Committee of the German Bundestag. And to repeated questions there, Haldenwang could neither explain what his legal definition of a “conspiracy narrative” generally is, nor which such narratives are then generally incompatible with the Constitution. Just as little could he explain which of these narratives are judicable or pose a danger to the FDGO [free, democratic basic order]; no more, permitted expressions of opinion… The long since confirmed suspicion that the BfV is operating primarily a partisan political defamation campaign opposed to the AfD has thereby become a certainty. Its President is not in a position to substantiate, genuinely fact-oriented, objectively comprehensible, his serious accusations. On account of the evidently purely political motivations of the Constitution Defense’s entire work against the AfD, “inter alia Faeser”, in our opinion all categorization and observation measures of the AfD are to be halted. 

 

[trans: tem]

Barbara Lenk, July 6, 2023, Artificial Intelligence

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/115, p. 14257. 

Right honorable Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. Valued colleagues. 

We today discuss a motion of the Linke delegation for the debate on the EU legislation for generative artificial intelligence. As usual, the Linke’s petitioners hunt after the phantom of an alleged discrimination by means of algorithms. As usual, they see the cure for saving the situation in an unbounded regulation of AI which is adapted to nip in the bud every creative impulse in regards start-ups as well as small and Mittlestand businesses. Their motion is thereby not approvable; since it prevents a future-oriented alignment of Germany’s policy with the goal of a digital sovereignty. 

As examples of generative AI, you name ChatGPT, Dall-E and Midjourney. These generators for pictures and text of U.S. American businesses determine the perception of larger AI models for the end user. 

Right honorable ladies and gentlemen, we should not forget: There are also generative AI made in Germany; for instance, the open source software Stable Diffusion or the chatbot Luminous of Aleph Alpha. 

The demands in the motion put forward by the Linke delegation hide the danger of throttling the creative dynamic of the German AI landscape in research and business. It is senseless to categorize generative AI per se as high-risk and thereby force it under the yoke of examinations and obligations. An AI is a neutral tool. Its potential for use or harm evolves as a result of the intentions of its users. A drone-borne camera can, for example, take spectacular photos of climbers on a cliff. Yet such a camera can also pursue a citizen in a city and brand his behavior as “socially undesirable”. 

In brief: The motion put forward by the Linke delegation we can only reject. The actual risk which threatens Germany in the matter of AI is the growing economic divide between Germany and the U.S.A. or China. So that the digital divide does not deepen into an AI canyon, Germany needs to finally invest in AI suitable data centers. This should also be intelligible to the Herr Federal Finance Minister! The door of digital sovereignty in regards AI is still open. The Linke’s motion however leads into an impassable labyrinth without return. This way we do not follow. 

Many thanks for the attention. Shortly before the close, I wish all colleagues a nice time off. 

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

Ulrike Schielke-Zeising, July 17, 2023, Old Age Pensions and Poverty

AfD Kompakt, July 17, 2023. 

An increase of 15 percent in one, single year: Such figures do not fall from heaven, they are the result of a total failure of pensions policy. All the talk of a “rich” Germany alters nothing of the facts: Now already every third pensioner receives a pension below the basic security (2021: 853 euros); a large portion of the old age pensioners are scarcely above that. 

So far today, more than a quarter of all pensioners are considered “officially” as poor – that in the future will be the rule rather than the exception. It is becoming more difficult: Germany is the laggard in Europe as is it pertains to real property and asset formation. That means: For whom the statutory pension no more suffices, he falls unchecked into poverty. Precisely that is happening now. Exploding living standard costs, rising rents, all the – avoidable – consequences of wrong political decisions, impact unchecked on the seniors’ living situation. 

Of a 3,000 euro inflation premium, as the ministers and state secretaries receive, the pensioners can only dream. And, thus far, they are still poor, even with a pension increase (most recently, 4.39 percent or 5.86 percent in respectively western or eastern Germany). Since this, as is known, is accounted for in the basic security. In other words: He who has, to him will be given; who cannot defend himself, goes away empty. That is the outcome of the “progressive coalition” in Germany. 

How it may otherwise, we have already indicated in our key points paper on old age security, and presently with our motion (Drs. 20/7461). 

 

[trans: tem]

Alice Weidel, July 7, 2023, Heating Law

German Bundestag, July 7, 2023, Plenarprotokoll 20/116, pp. 14329-14330. 

Right honorable Frau President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. 

The Federal Constitutional Court’s decision has spared us the disgrace of an ignorant, half-baked and bungled law, cobbled together with the crowbar, being enforced. 

You wanted to flog through this green ideological project, with disdain for the citizens’ concerns and the rights of the parliament, and arrogantly wipe away the reasoned objections of an entire host of experts. You obviously still have not heard the shot; for you stubbornly cling to this project. And you of the CDU also do not really want to prevent the heating law; you also have said yes to it. 

Thorsten Frei (CSU/CSU): Then you have not listened to the speech of the delegation chairman! 

A heating law in two months is just as wrong as now. Nothing therein is to be repaired. For the entire proposal by which you want to prescribe to the people how they have to heat their dwellings and houses is not only wrong, it is also unconstitutional.   

You speak of respect. Yet you seize hold of the citizens’ private property, without shame. Constitutional law defends this private property. 

            Konstantin Kuhle (FDP): And human dignity!

Your impoverishment and expropriation law forces owners of private property to sacrifice their reserves and resources for expensive, inefficient and in many cases unsuitable electric heating. You drive them into indebtedness. Many will not be able to maintain their property. International investors stand by, ready for the great sell-out. 

            Johannes Fechner (SPD): That is just rubbish!

Millions of renters will need to pay the bill as a result of rising rents. 

The world laughs at Germany because its government needlessly destroys the nation’s wealth, ruins the middle class and drives industry out of the country. For the reduction of CO₂ emissions and the influencing of the world climate, the heating law is completely useless. You have tinkered with it for months. Yet you still cannot say how great the CO₂ savings generally shall be. 

Over the true costs, you leave the citizens in obscurities, and deceive them with promises of subventions which you cannot pay. You do not tell the truth to the people of the additional attacks on the national wealth which threaten by way of the EU’s subterfuges, moreover pushed by CDU/Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: An intensified renewable energy law, the forced reconstruction by means of the impending EU building guidelines, and the introduction of the monstrous EU CO₂ certificate trade in the construction sector, threaten entire population classes with an annihilation of prosperity and expropriation. And herein is seen once again the double-standard and the hypocrisy of the CDU. 

A heating law of use to no one other than the international investors and the heating pump lobby which, even without clan chief Graichen, here have a tight grip on the Economy Ministry. And which is used by climate ideologues who thereby want to realize their dream of an eco-socialist, planned- and scarcity-economy, with its freight bicycles and candles, in which prescriptions and compulsion take the place of private property, of prosperity, reason and fair competition. 

It is completely clear why you wanted to so hectically enforce this: You are afraid of the citizens, of your own voters; since they very well understand that they will be lied to, cheated, expropriated and made poorer [belogen, betrogen, enteignet und ärmer gemacht]. Your calculation nevertheless will not proceed. Four-fifths of this country’s people are against the heating law. Four-fifths! That you cannot do fractions and math is fully clear. Have it explained to you what four fifths actually means. 

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): By you, simply nothing is to be explained!

Be that as it may. The best heating law is no heating law. Use the hiatus which the Federal Constitutional Court has graciously given you to completely pulp this unspeakable law. 

I am grateful.

 

[trans: tem]

 

 

Sylvia Limmer, July 12, 2023, EU Climate Decree and Agriculture

AfD Kompakt, July 12, 2023. 

By means of an intentional, massive recession of agricultural area, this decree endangers our food security, threatens the livelihoods of farmers and grape growers and is a further step into an EU climate museum. Its basic premise, according to which species variety on idled acres is generally greater than on acres in operation, is moreover to be questioned. 

Had the CDU/CSU members as a part of the EVP delegation on the Environment Committee proclaimed themselves for the rejection of the proposed decree, and thereby discreetly talked over the tacit cooperation with the AfD, they might now seemingly act quietly. The revolt contrived by Manfred Weber against the EU Commission President with a CDU party book has failed. 

All the same, this sudden change of mind was politically dishonorable. Even in October 2019, the “From Farm to Table Strategy” was enthusiastically agreed to in a resolution; a strategy which propagated, besides the reconstruction of nature, the wholesale reduction and in part the complete ban of pesticides. To that pertains the recent statement of Peter Liese, the EVP’s environmental spokesman, that the Green Deal would be “energetically” supported by the EVP. And who frankly admitted that with the Green Deal and the nature reconstruction decree, and the associated expropriations and interdictions of the citizens in reference to nutrition, one needs to apply more slowly. Thus increasingly in Germany, evidently “politically disturbed” citizens need to be “cooked green” more slowly so that they, like the proverbial frog in the pot, do not before time take flight. Thus one does not act out of factual and substantial conviction but merely on the basis of political calculation. 

The AfD on that account from the beginning has represented a clear line which makes a theme of and categorically rejects the abolition of agriculture associated with the green-red strategy papers. Since the farmers need our support, for it is they who safeguard our food. 

 

[trans: tem]

 

Thomas Ehrhorn, July 6, 2023, War on One’s Own People

German Bundestag, July 6, 2023, Plenarprotokoll 20/115, pp. 14205-14206. 

Frau President. Ladies and gentlemen. 

The draft law put forward deals primarily with the acceleration of the approval procedures for windpower installations and facilities for production of so-called green hydrogen. So as to forestall the same: The speeches on green hydrogen, this alleged wonder technology of the future, which in reality is a stillbirth, is an additional green chimera. Yet this is marginal. 

How shall permitting procedures now be thus accelerated? The answer reads: a) While almost all possibilities of protest and influence are taken from the public, b) while the States’ power of decision is undermined, c) while examinations of environmental compatibility are simply abolished, d) so that in the future protection of species and agriculture no more play a role. But anyway – the main thing is, Germany saves the world climate! 

How absurd this supposition in fact is, the following figures show: Germany, which has a two percent portion of worldwide CO₂ emissions, has since 1990 cut back some one-third of its emissions. The rest of the world, which is responsible for 98 percent of CO₂ output, has in the same time increased its CO₂ emissions by two-thirds. In other words: What we in Germany do or allow is absolutely irrelevant for the world climate. 

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): That is an absurd theory!

The ideologically motivated and artificially generated climate hysteria thus alone serves as a justification for the planned radical change in our society, the radical change into an authoritarian socialist planned economy 

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): Uijuijui! 

Jan Niclas Gesenhues (Greens): Conspiracy theory! Again a false turn on the internet, or what? 

in which the state prescribes to the people how they are to live, how they are to eat, with what they are to heat. It serves as a justification for the rainbow coalition’s war against our industry, against the automobile, against our private property, a war which meanwhile has become a war of those who govern against one’s own people. 

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): That is the wrong word!

And I say to you: The people there outside, they know this and they are fed up with it. 

            Axel Echeverria (SPD): Yes, with you!

Since the only sustainability goal which you are in a position to attain is to drive this country straight into the wall and to annihilate our sustained prosperity. Thus Professor Dr. Knut Löschke, 

            Carsten Träger (SPD): How is he called?

member of the college council of the University of Leipzig and member of the board of trustees of the Max Planck Institute, speaks to the citizens from the deepest soul 

            Petra Sitte (Linke): He is for long no more a member. I have taken care of that!

when he says – I cite with permission of the President: 

I have enough of it…I have a nose full of permanent and ever more religious climate talk, of energy transition fantasies, of electro-auto worship, through horror stories of world downfall scenarios…to world catastrophes. 

I can no more bear the people who daily scream this in microphones and cameras or publish it in newspapers. I suffer first-hand how natural science is made a whore of politics. 

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): Eijeijei!

Ladies and gentlemen of the CDU/CSU, I can thus give to you just the good advice: Send the firewall fetishists and BlackRock orders-takers as quickly as possible into the wasteland. Become again a party which is ready, in common with the AfD, to turn things upside down 

Daniel Rinkert (SPD): Do you then want to change the Federal Emissions Protection Law? What are your proposals? Of that, nothing is heard!

and to make reason-oriented policy for Germany. If you do not do that, you will, quicker than you suppose, dwindle into meaninglessness. 

Thank you. 

 

[trans: tem]