The former Union faction leader is one of the supporters of the new conservative campaign agency The Republic.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The new campaign agency “The Republic” has been drumming for itself on social media for days. The network started on Thursday, which it claims to fight for “freedom, security and prosperity”. “Our mission is a bourgeois Germany”, so the self-description.
There is some confusion about who is behind the agency. It was initiated mainly by the former CSU employee Armin Petschner-Multari. A prominent supporter is the former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz, who recently appeared in Leipzig at an evening event at which Petschner-Multari solicited (financial) support for his project.
He has followed the development of this project “with interest and wishes the initiators every success in terms of the diversity of opinion in Germany,” Merz can tell on request. But also emphasizes: He is not, as some have claimed, a founder of the agency.
After all: Merz shows sympathy for the project. Other prominent Union politicians, who were initially named as supporters, distance themselves. “I’m not one of them,” said the CSU politician Dorothee Bär. The Hamburg CDU boss Christoph Ploß emphasized that he was not present at the meeting in Leipzig. He should, however, have a positive attitude towards the project.
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Petschner-Multari explains that he founded the agency and had spoken to different people in the past few weeks about whether they wanted to support the project ideally or financially. To this end, he also looked into the environment of the SME and Economic Union (MIT).
Supporters should come from the economic wing
Numerous supporters should come from the economic wing. However, they are involved as private individuals. The Republic is not an MIT event, as Petschner-Multari and MIT alike emphasized. MIT boss Carsten Linnemann was – contrary to media reports – not present at the donation dinner in Frankfurt.
In the Union, some are annoyed that the agency is now appearing as a CDU and CSU project. CDU finance politician Matthias Hauer wrote on Twitter: “What is opposing ‘political left-wing drift’ is the CDU and CSU, but not a commercial campaign agency with a (very conservative) English name.”
But also Union politicians who are more benevolent towards the project speak of a false start. The agency only has a chance as a non-partisan initiative, now it is seen as close to the Union. Founder Petschner-Multari emphasizes that he is also in contact with FDP politicians. “It’s about the bourgeois camp,” he says. But he doesn’t want to give names.
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