Stupid Watergate: Olaf Scholz 'Met Repeatedly' with Correctiv in the Run-Up to the 'Scandal'
Sadly, we must yet again talk about this, if only because it is both scandalous and stupid (although I'm unsure which of these two is more upsetting)
Prelim: there are three long-form essays in this ‘series’, which are all linked here:
Today, I bring you more evidence of undue collusion between the Olaf Scholz-led federal government of Germany and the state-and-philantropath-funded outlet Correctiv. This isn’t my reporting; investigation into these shenanigans was carried out by both AfD members of the Bundestag and followed-up on by alt-media outlet NIUS.
Translation, emphases, and bottom lines mine.
Chancellor Scholz met with Correctiv Shortly Before the ‘Secret Conference’
By Björn Harms and Jan A. Karon, NIUS, 13 Feb. 2024 [source]
The German government has met with the research portal [sic] Correctiv more often than previously known. This is revealed in the Federal Government's response to a written enquiry by AfD member of parliament Matthias Moosdorf, which NIUS has obtained exclusively.
According to the answer, there were two meetings between Correctiv's managing director, Jeannette Gusko, and representatives of the Federal Chancellery immediately before the ‘secret meeting’ on 25 November 2023 in Potsdam.
Personal Meeting of Correctiv and Federal Chancellor Scholz
Just eight days before the [alleged] conference at Lehnitzsee, Gusko met Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in person.
The federal government's response to Moosdorf's question about meetings between representatives of the federal government and Correctiv states verbatim: ‘A meeting between the Federal Chancellor and the Managing Director of Correctiv, Ms. Gusko’, occurred ‘spontaneously in the context of [orig. am Rande] of the East Germany 2030 conference on 17 November 2023’.
In addition, ten days earlier, on 7 November 2023, a discussion round took place in the Federal Chancellery, in which Correctiv Managing Director Gusko took part and met, among others, the Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Germany, Carsten Schneider (SPD).
Counting the non-public meetings and discussion events from the last four years known to date, government representatives and Correctiv journalists have met a total of eleven times.
Meanwhile, the federal government does not provide any information about the exact content of the non-public meetings. According to the answer, ‘non-public or unpublished discussions that journalists hold with representatives of authorities in the course of their editorial or research activities, which are protected by the freedom of the press’, i.e., they are subject to research and editorial confidentiality.
Doubts About Correctiv’s Journalistic Independence
The Berliner Zeitung had already reported [archived version] on several meetings between Correctiv journalists and representatives of the federal government last weekend [article dated 10 Feb. 2024]. According to an answer to an enquiry by AfD politician Leif-Erik Holm, there were at least three non-public meetings between Correctiv editorial staff and representatives of the federal government. For example, there was a meeting between government representatives, Correctiv and Facebook on 2 June 2020. The topic: combating disinformation…
Correctiv Knew About the Alleged ‘Secret Conference’ when Meeting the Chancellor
When Jeannette Gusko met Olaf Scholz on 17 November 2023, Correctiv had long been aware that the meeting between AfD politicians, right-wing activists, entrepreneurs, and representatives of the Werte-Union [Values Union] was being infiltrated, according to research by NIUS [this is probably the most damning piece of information to come out here]. According to information obtained by NIUS, the guest who was smuggled into Potsdam, who went by the alias Walter Redelfs, checked into the guesthouse on Lehnitzsee via the booking.com website on 16 October—one month before the private meeting between Gusko and Scholz and two weeks before one of the hosts, Gernot Mörig, sent out an invitation in which Martin Sellner's name was mentioned for the first time.
At the end of January, Correctiv founder David Schraven told [archived version] the Berliner Zeitung that such meetings were ‘non-binding discussions’ and that ‘no record is kept’. In addition, it ‘always happens from time to time’ that government representatives talk to Correctiv employees.
Well-Connected in the SPD Milieu
Jeannette Gusko, who met Chancellor Scholz on 17 November 2023, claims to be an ‘advocate of social justice’ [i.e., a woke-fied radical], a ‘leader for systemic change’ [hi, Marx, Lenin, and Mao], and a ‘feminist’ who has been well-connected in the milieu of the SPD, the chancellor's party, for years. The Correctiv managing director has appeared several times at events organised by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation [this is the premier SPD-led think tank] and gave a speech at an SPD party conference. She is also friends with SPD politician Sawsan Chebli, as pictures of them together show. Together with Chebli, she was one of the first 20 female signatories of an SPD appeal for International Women's Day in 2019, which called for 50:50 parity between men and women in all elections.
Back in 2015, Jeannette Gusko accepted an invitation to the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs when SPD politician Manuela Schwesig headed the ministry. There, she gave a talk to local politicians on the topic of social media. The activist, who was born in Berlin in 1984, received an expense allowance of 200 euros, as the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs confirmed to NIUS.
Bottom Lines
The internet is both a blessing and a curse. As regards its positive effects, it is beyond doubt that today it’s way easier for such information to ‘come out’ and be distributed that in the ‘olden days’ before 1997.
What does the above piece tell us?
Firstly, the ‘Americanisation’ of ‘doing politics’ is well advanced, which, after almost 80 years of US occupation and penetration of what used to be Germany comes as no surprise. Even the most cursory look at the incestuous relationship between mainstream media and the US gov’t indicates that this is part and parcel of how things are run: often in secrecy, with no holds barred, and an electorate that is ill-informed, misinformed, or simply lied to at-will.
Second, the chronology looks highly suspicious here, esp. if one adds the advance knowledge of Germany’s—and certainly also the USUK’s—intelligence services about virtually all these shenanigans. This looks very suspect on another level once the ‘protests vs. the right’, called for by the German gov’t in the aftermath of Correctiv’s ‘reporting’ are considered. To the informed reader of history this reeks of late-Soviet agit-prop to distract the populace from a failing régime.
Third, the fact that mainstream and legacy media downplay these revelations, as well as ‘overlook’ Sahra Wagenknecht’s centre-left Bündnis, a new party poised to make significant inroads in the upcoming three state elections at the expense of all government parties (SPD, Greens, FDP) while the AfD is the frontrunner in all polls, is telling in and of itself. It’s also highly expectable in foreign-controlled ‘banana republics’ where there are no rules of conduct that may not be violated to continue the decaying régime, the will of the population be damned, if ever considered.
So, where does this leave us? I suppose that the entire façade of the rule of law and the ‘old parties’ that governed (West) Germany since 1949 will be replaced soon. In this case, the history of Italy after around 1990 is an instructive reminder that it is the allegedly ‘lazy’ southerners who pioneered—engineered—the rapid exchange of the existing, highly corrupt parties and replaced them all with many new, and ever-changing, factions. If everything fails, a technocratic ‘caretaker’ gov’t (hi, Mario Draghi) will be installed.
I suppose that a variety of this will be the immediate future for Germany.