Jens Spahn as a “language extremist”? Fact check on a sharepic with Jens Spahn.

There is currently a meme on social media in which Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) is pictured and two sentences can be read. Because of the quotation marks, the viewer initially assumes that it is a quote. As is often the case with sharepics and memes, the content is missing, but also the temporary context and the source from which it is quoted.

All you read here is: “Left-wing fascists hurt people and chant hatred. And as a reward there is sympathetic reporting in the public broadcaster.”

 

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Let's do a fact check

Did Spahn say that?

Spahn never published the quote, as it is formally presented in quotation marks, in the exact form. This is a slightly shortened and simplified, but meaningful representation of a status report that Spahn published in July 2017 in the context of the G20 summit in Hamburg.

The complete and unchanged statement reads: “Harrowing scenes from Hamburg. These masked left-wing fascists destroy the cars of families, trainees and citizens, they hurt people and chant hatred. And as a reward there is applause from the left and understanding reporting in the public broadcaster. Corrosive. The police deserve our full support if they respond with the necessary severity. Point."

Criticism of “left-wing fascists”

The focus of this sharepic, however, is likely to be on the term “left-wing fascism” used by Spahn and the denounced media reporting. These are terms and narratives that, according to press reports, have previously been used more in right-wing extremist circles. This is what the Sächsische Zeitung in a dpa report on July 8, 2017:

Up to now, neo-Nazis and other right-wing extremists have primarily used the term “left-wing fascists” to describe Antifa and left-wing autonomists. Jens Spahn's Facebook post is the first time the term has publicly entered the language of an established party.

In this reporting, Spahn was labeled a “language extremist”.


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )