Germany’s far-right AfD party turns on Swedish school-girl Greta Thunberg as it embraces climate denial
By Kate Connolly
14 May 2019
BERLIN (The Guardian) – Germany’s rightwing populists are embracing climate change denial as the latest topic with which to boost their electoral support, teaming up with scientists who claim hysteria is driving the global warming debate and ridiculing the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as “mentally challenged” and a fraud.
The Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) is expected to launch its biggest attack yet on mainstream climate science at a symposium in parliament on Tuesday supported by a prominent climate change denial body linked by researchers to prominent conservative groups in the US.
The Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) is expected to launch its biggest attack yet on mainstream climate science at a symposium in parliament on Tuesday supported by a prominent climate change denial body linked by researchers to prominent conservative groups in the US.
The AfD’s focus on climate change has increased since it entered the Bundestag in autumn 2017. It has added a sceptical voice to the rising number of parliamentary debates on the topic and concentrated its opposition specifically on the scandal over diesel car emissions and plans to phase out brown coal.
But the attention the party paid to the topic has been noticeably ramped up since the emergence last August of Greta, the teenage climate activist who has appeared at climate rallies across Europe, including in Germany.
A joint investigation by Greenpeace Unearthed and the counter-extremism organisation the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) has shown a surge in AfD digital communication on climate issues. While climate change barely got a mention on its social media channels when the AfD was first founded in 2013, it mentioned the topic on its channels about 300 times in 2017-18, and that has tripled over the past year to more than 900, with its main focus on Greta.
The party, whose members have been seen handing out climate change denial leaflets at school climate strikes, has ratcheted up its anti-Thunberg rhetoric ahead of the EU parliamentary elections this month. Its candidates have made comparisons between the Swedish teenager and a member of a Nazi youth organisation and called for her to seek treatment for what Maximilian Krah, an AfD candidate for the EU elections, called her “psychosis”.
It has also been repeatedly claimed on AfD’s Facebook page that she is the leader of a climate movement cult. Posts on the page make repeated use of terms such as “CO2Kult” (CO2 cult), “Klimawandelpanik” (climate change panic) and “Klimagehirnwäsche” (climate brain washing). [more]
Germany’s AfD turns on Greta Thunberg as it embraces climate denial
German far right targets Greta Thunberg in anti-climate push
By Damian Kahya
14 May 2019
(Unearthed) – As they seek to gain ground in the upcoming European elections, Germany’s far-right has a new target: a Swedish school-girl.
The emergence of teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has seen the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party ramp up its focus on climate change, according to an Unearthed investigation with counter-extremism organisation the Institute of Strategic Dialogue (ISD).
At the invitation of Karsten Hilse, the AfD’s environmental spokesperson, a clutch of controversial scientists and speakers are expected to launch an attack on mainstream climate science at an event in the heart of the German parliament.
It coincides with a surge in AfD social media posts on climate, according to data from the ISD.
The event is being publicised by a German-based political outfit called the European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE), with which all of the event’s speakers have a previous association. The think tank’s vice-president also advises Hilse.
The move to challenge the scientific consensus on climate change is relatively new to the EU, but has a storied history in the US — and there is evidence of connections to groups across the Atlantic.
EIKE is known for its annual climate conference, which is co-sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a US think-tank which has long financed projects which appear to undermine public confidence in climate science, and the US Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT).
EIKE also shares an address with a linked organisation, CFACT Europe which was itself set up by current EIKE president Holger Thuss.
An Unearthed analysis of financial disclosure forms in the US has revealed CFACT Europe received financial support from its American namesake, another climate-sceptic conservative outfit.
Though Heartland and CFACT have historic ties to the fossil fuel industry, transparency campaigners say it is now hard to identify the sources of their income – much of which comes from trusts and foundations which do not have reveal the source of their donations.
A CFACT spokesperson told Unearthed the think tank takes no money directly from fossil fuel firms adding: “4% [of funding] comes from corporations, and zero of our funding comes from any major oil or fossil fuel company. 45% of our funding comes from thousands of small donors who contribute what they can to promote our message of free-market environmentalism, technology, and human and environmental progress.”
Thuss told Unearthed that CFACT Europe “no longer exists,” and that it was effectively – though not formally – rendered defunct in 2013.
“Nazi youth”
Tuesday’s event coincides with a surge in AfD digital communication on climate matters, according to exclusive data from ISD.
Where the party mentioned climate change on its social media channels fewer than 300 times in 2017-18, that figure has more than tripled over the past year, with a particular focus on Greta.
AfD candidates for the EU parliament elections, in which the party is expected to make major gains, have called on her to seek treatment for her ‘psychosis’ and – without irony – likened her to Nazi youth.
Hilse himself has been found circulating climate denial material at a Berlin climate school strike in March.
The controversial politician – who leads on environmental issues for the party – triggered laughter in the Bundestag last year when he described man-made climate change as ‘heresy’ and called for an end to the energy transition.
EIKE
But the AfD’s fresh focus on climate change appears based in part on a longer-term relationship with a previously little-known German think tank, EIKE, whose vice president Michael Limburg advises Hilse.
Indeed Limburg previously ran as an AfD candidate himself and was a key member of the far-right party’s climate and energy working group.
Though EIKE denies supporting any political party, it is publicising Tuesday’s event on its website, drawing attention to its relationships with the speakers, all of whom have spoken at the group’s climate change conferences.
The website post had claimed one speaker, Viscount Monckton, “led several actions by EIKE and CFACT Europe” but Thuss changed the text after he was contacted by Unearthed, saying it did not make sense and Monckton is “not even a member of our organisation.” He is now described as “well known to friends EIKE.”
Ulrich Mueller, an analyst at LobbyControl, which campaigns on lobbying and transparency issues in Germany, said: “There are close relations between EIKE and the AfD. People from EIKE are very active in the AfD and influence its positions on climate change and energy policy. In general EIKE is not very influential in the German public as a whole but the AfD provides an opportunity for them to spread their messages.”
The American connection
EIKE itself has extensive ties to prominent conservative think-tanks in the US, in particular, the Heartland Institute which co-sponsors the annual climate denial conference hosted by EIKE.
Heartland’s fellows feature on the ticket, just as EIKE’s top experts have addressed the Heartland conference, the group lists EIKE’s Thuss on the ‘who are we’ page of its. Though it says EIKE is connected to Germany’s mainstream parties it makes no reference to the its ties to the AfD.
Speaking to Unearthed, Thuss declined to say if the public association has a financial component. A spokesperson for Heartland told Unearthed the group has “worked closely with EIKE over the years, and have often participated in each other’s climate conferences.”
In 2010, another climate-sceptic and conservative think tank in the US, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) gave nearly $15,000 to its European chapter CFACT Europe. The payment was acknowledged by Thuss on a call with Unearthed.
CFACT Europe, which was co-founded by EIKE’s Thuss, had previously described itself as a ‘founding member’ of EIKE, and CFACT CEO Craig Rucker told German outlet Monitor: “we are here to support EIKE in every possible way”.
A spokesperson for CFACT told Unearthed the group agrees with EIKE’s mission “to raise awareness of accurate climate science.”
EIKE and CFACT have also organised conferences together. Of EIKE’s ties to Heartland and CFACT, Thuss said: “We maintain no organisational ties to them, we are personal friends.” [more]
German far right targets Greta Thunberg in anti-climate push
