There are currently almost regular false reports about the Green Party's candidate for chancellor, Annalena Baerbock. So again now.

It's about a statement that Baerbock is said to have made. A statement about the widow's pension. The Green Party's candidates for chancellor allegedly want to abolish this widow's pension. At least this is spread on a sharepic that people send via WhatsApp or Facebook.

On the sharepic you can see a picture of the politician on the left. There is a longer text on the right. There we read the following:

Ms. Baerbock: “Abolish widow’s pension”
The widow’s pension is a relic from Germany’s militant past. This was intended to protect the wives of soldiers killed in war from social impoverishment. Today our women are self-determined and no longer financially dependent on their men. We should take this fact into account. This relic from another time should be abolished. With the 1.5 billion saved, we could do a lot for the integration of refugees.

What's up with this sharepic? If elected Chancellor, does the Green Party politician want to abolish widows' pensions and use these funds to integrate refugees?

What is the widow's pension?

This is a pension for survivors. The German Pension Insurance (DRV) describes this pension as protection if a large pension income is lost due to the death of a family member:

  • If your spouse/partner dies, you may be entitled to a widow's or widower's pension.
  • If you are a minor or still in school or vocational training and lose one or even both parents, you can receive a half or full orphan's pension.
  • Are you divorced and raising a minor child? Then you can receive a child-care pension when your ex-partner dies.
  • If you remarry as a widow or widower, your widow or widower's pension will no longer apply. You are then entitled to a pension severance payment as “starting capital”.

Fact check widow's pension

In this case we proceed in the classic way. First, we search for the statement itself using a search engine. We do not find any results in the form of a quote search. Searching using keywords from the text also does not produce any results. This means that this sentence cannot be found online.

There is no media reporting on it either. The Greens' party program also contains no passages about the abolition of widows' pensions. In the next step we are looking for official statements from the Greens. There is actually on Twitter from the press spokesperson and head of press and communications at BÜNDNIS 90/THE GREENS:

This quote is simply fake.

As a final step, we then look for secondary literature. This is where we find what we are looking for, as there is already a fact check from Correctiv and AFP on this topic. Both come to the same conclusion as us.

AFP's fact check also includes a statement from the spokesman for the German Pension Insurance (DRV). AFP asked whether the German pension insurance knows anything about this. In it, the spokesman for the German pension insurance company is quoted as saying that it is a “fake quote”.

What's that supposed to mean?

With this fake we are dealing with a hoax that has an impact on different levels. On the one hand, a classic narrative is used that the Greens want to harm the German people. And only to the German people. Therefore, this is about the widow's pension. This stands at the meta level for the German population.

At the same time, a second narrative is served, namely that the Greens want to bring about a kind of population exchange or that migrants are given preference. Therefore, according to the fake, the money saved should be spent on migrants and their integration.

Interestingly, for many people it doesn't even matter that it is a hoax. We regularly read defensive sentences like “but it could have been” or “you can be trusted.” These statements confirm that the narratives are so effective that even absurd false reports (such as the abolition of widow's pensions in favor of integration) are considered absolutely plausible.

That could also be of interest

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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 )