The 144-page coalition deal signed last week between Germany's conservative CDU/CSU political union and the centre-left Social Democrats outlines steps to address “disinformation” and “targeted influence on elections”, citing “serious threats to our democracy”.
The move comes amid mounting concern in Europe over the impact of electoral disinformation, and after a series of clashes between Washington and Berlin over free speech and democratic principles.
Ahead of February’s German election, Trump ally and tech mogul Elon Musk tried to bolster the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), just as J.D. Vance delivered a blistering criticism of supposed free speech suppression in Europe at the Munich Security Conference.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has since accused Germany of “tyranny in disguise” after the German intelligence agency labeled AfD as a "right-wing extremist" party, a decision that was then suspended.
Now, Conservative commentators have accused the new German government of introducing a “ban on lies” due to a sentence of the coalition deal between the CDU/CSU and the SPD that reads: “The deliberate dissemination of false factual claims is not covered by freedom of expression.”
But two legal experts have told Euroverify that this extract from the coalition agreement represents “nothing new” and is in line with the protections of free speech granted by German law.
“This sentence (...) is well-founded on the case law of the...
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