Germany: foreign interference and disinformation hover over the legislative elections, Russia pointed out

It is not just Elon Musk’s interference which has openly multiplied the praise for the far -right alternative party Für Deutschland (AFD). While 59.2 million Germans go to the polls on Sunday to elect 630 deputies, Russia also took advantage of the campaign to propagate more insidiously disinformation on social networks in order to “destroy confidence in democracy” Affected on Friday Berlin.

The authorities “have information on influence and disinformation operations from Russia and that’s exactly what they expected,” Maximilian Kall, spokesperson for the Interior Ministry, said on Friday. Two operations were thus noted this week by the authorities.

An exponential broadcast of clips

In the first case, false videos showed correspondence ballots in the city of Leipzig, where the name of the far-right AFD party did not appear, the spokesman said. Short clips were downloaded by various accounts which, at first glance, were supposed to give the impression of a real person, but who actually actually active, explains Der Spiegel.

In the second example, false videos claimed that correspondence ballots in favor of AFD were thrown into a shredder in Hamburg, in the north of the country. “The electoral commissioner of the Land of Hamburg stresses that the documents shown in the video are false. The State Security Department of our State Criminal Police Bureau began an investigation, “the Hamburg police said.

In both cases, inconsistencies appeared after a meticulous examination. The campaign Modus Operandi is similar, according to the government, to propaganda operations of the Russian group Storm-1516. This cell linked to the Kremlin was also active during the American election to discredit the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Germany, military support of Ukraine in Europe, is on the alert in the face of Russian attempts to destabilize the election. The Kremlin deploys false information sites, defamatory articles or cyber attacks for this purpose, explained the intelligence services in December.

A young Russian arrested at Berlin Airport

Should we see the hand of the Kremlin? An 18 -year -old Russian national was arrested on Thursday at Schönefeld Berlin airport, according to the Berlin daily Taggesspiegel. This Chechen, living in Potsdam, near the German capital, would have planned an attack against the Embassy of Israel in Berlin. After the plans of attack could not be implemented, he would have considered flying towards Istanbul (Türkiye).

“In the context of the federal elections on Sunday, it is unfortunately also likely that terrorist organizations and foreign dictatorships are once again trying to destabilize our democracy with targeted attacks,” according to the spokesperson for a Berlin police union, Who thanks “the excellent cross -border collaboration”.

The Chancellor denounces an interference from the Trump administration

Asked about the threat that could constitute the X platform, owned by the billionaire Elon Musk near Donald Trump, the spokesman assured does not observe “no influence” on the German elections from the United States, yet those responsible German policies, including Chancellor Scholz, denounced an “interference”, in a context of growing tensions with the Trump administration.

For several months, the owner of Tesla has multiplied praise for AFD and its candidate Alice Weidel, and criticism, even insults, for German leaders. AFD is credited with approximately 20% of the votes by Sunday polls, behind the Christian-democratic conservative party CDU.

The spokesperson also careful not to disinformation of the virulent speeches of the Trump administration vis-à-vis the German government. Last week, US vice-president JD Vance urged traditional German parties to give up health cords erected against the extreme right and attacked the conception of freedom of expression in Europe.