Is the Saxon state government being blackmailed?
Published on August 7, 2020 by Ped
Politicians stepping out of line are put under pressure worldwide - including in Germany.
According to credible sources available to me, in June or July of that year, Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer was put under massive pressure to prevent his state government from turning away from the regulatory policy prescribed from Berlin, which violated fundamental rights and was being pursued under the pretext of fighting the pandemic. Other examples both inside and outside Germany show that this does not have to be taken out of thin air.
Put at the beginning: It is up to each individual to classify the facts I convey in terms of their credibility. The sources - why this is so, everyone can imagine for himself - are not revealed by me.
Let us recall the advance of the Thuringian Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow in May of this year. In view of a minimum number of cases - i.e. positive tests for the "novel virus" - the state leader considered it sensible to return to everyday life. But he had made the calculation without the host (1).
No sooner had this become generally known, a well-coordinated political and media campaign against Ramelow was launched, in which he was reprimanded for his "fatal signals" and warned to "carelessly gamble away the successes he had achieved." In the usual manner, the impression of a generally outraged public was created. Thuringia would then play "vabanque" and concern for "the reasonable" was feigned.
This was a media blackmail of the very first order (2 to 5), albeit by no means new.
Those who are interested in this have long known that there is no evidence whatsoever that this "lockdown" was successful in containing an epidemiological event. Instead, this "success" was conjured up in a mass media and unified political chorus. Whoever thinks of a version of GDR 2.0 - regarding this expressed uniform opinion - is by no means out of the woods [i.e. wrong]. The fact is that Ramelow finally gave in to pressure. An actually extensive lifting of all emergency measures did not take place.
We can easily see that there have been repeated attempts by state governments to end the madness of coercive measures. Only from Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Lower Saxony and Berlin the state of emergency was constantly being fired up anew. This will have greatly relieved companies such as CureVac, Biontech, SAP and Siemens (6 to 9).
Let us now go to Saxony. Its Prime Minister, Michael Kretschmer, had been quite reserved before July 25th of this year regarding the population's commitment to a "fight against the virus". Therefore his statements, which he announced to the
Rheinische Post in an interview, were quite surprising:
"The second Corona wave is already here. It already takes place every day. We have new foci of infection every day, which could become very high numbers." (10)
What drove Kretschmer to suddenly advertise the "corona measures" in a West German media paper, possibly against his better judgment? The head of government of the Free State of Saxony was not at all noticed as an agitator before, I even concede him an authenticity which goes beyond the general measure of high-ranking politicians.
Since the beginning of the emergency ordinances, there had also been repeated protests in Dresden and other Saxon cities. Every weekend since March/April, hundreds of people went "for a walk" in the state capital, the majority without masks and without the ordered "safety distance". The authorities and security forces were generally very careful with their enforcement obligations, so that unpleasant scenes were not absent but can still be considered exceptions. By the way, in Dresden these were never "hygiene demonstrations" - an expression that would not do justice to the concern - but rather demonstrations of basic rights.
Surprisingly, Michael Kretschmer appeared among the participants at one of these demos - the one on May 16 - in Dresden's Großer Garten and spent three-quarters of an hour answering their questions. Two days earlier he had publicly warned against "lumping together" the protests against the Corona measures. He respected the protesters (11). He also made a statement to the
Sächsische Zeitung:
"There are people who have questions that I would like to answer," Kretschmer said. At the same time, however, there are also people "who reject everything and want to say so clearly", he explained: "I would like to understand what they reject". (11i)
From this point of view, his appearance at the fundamental rights demonstration was conclusive, his request credible. At this point I would like to ask the readers to raise their awareness. We should signal special respect, even concessions, to politicians who dare to come out of their comfort zone. In contrast to the author of the video on the Internet, who thankfully documented the guest visit in full, I do NOT consider Kretschmer's appearance to be a PR stunt.
His attitude, his emotions, the narratives he represents, his disturbing medical and biological ignorance, but also his efforts to understand the other side: All this seems authentic to me. The man faced the demonstrators in a really uncomfortable atmosphere and showed courage (12).
Already at that time he was confronted (a1) with the topic of face masks and exaggerated "hygiene" (disinfection), where he got powerfully into floundering. But it had got stuck with him, and we will come back to that later. Finally, the head of the state promised one of the participants, Michael Grasemann (13) in front of the cameras, that he would accept the invitation to a round table organized by him (12i).
The fact is: Kretschmer was afraid of the virus in March, but this fear increasingly dissolved in the May days.
Unfortunately, it did not come to the round table, not to the one he had promised. Instead, he himself invited to a round table on May 28. On the part of the Saxon state government, the Minister of Health Petra Köpping and the Minister of Justice Katja Meier were also present. Except for the respectful atmosphere, the event was ultimately a disappointment. The only ray of hope was the appearance of Professor Peter Dierich, founder of the Zittau University of Applied Sciences. He explained what is now openly available from countless sources, including official and governmental sources: When the emergency measures were decreed, the official politicians knew that there was no longer any exponential growth of infections - wrong: positive for the virus tested - (14).
Also Michael Grasemann, who had actually been the inviting one to the round table, was invited to this meeting and renewed this original invitation to the Prime Minister. Again Kretschmer promised, but I do not know that he has kept this promise to this day. At least that was my knowledge until recently.
Because officially nothing fundamentally new happened, not even with regard to "corona control", for which a look into the Saxon Corona Ordinance is sufficient (15).
However - as I have already mentioned and it is of course my personal view - in Saxony in general, and in Dresden in particular, there had always been an effort to avoid a dictatorial and excessive handling of the regulations. For example, in Saxony the compulsory wearing of masks is still not punishable - neither for retailers nor for customers.
Now to the information I received:
At the end of June of this year, i.e. before July 14th (when the new Saxon Corona Ordinance was issued), another round table was held, according to sources. At this table the following people met afterwards:
- Michael Kretschmer (Prime Minister of Saxony)
- Petra Köpping (Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs and Social Cohesion)
- Sucharit Bhakdi (German specialist in microbiology and infectious disease epidemiology/certified professor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and from 1991 to 2012 head of the Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene there)
- Stefan Homburg (finance scientist, 16)
- Martin Haditsch (Specialist in microbiology and infection epidemiology in Hannover)
- Karina Reiss (Clinic for Dermatology, Venerology and Allergology in Kiel)
- and more
During his visit to the fundamental rights demonstration in May, Kretschmer had considered and hinted, among other things, at an end to the obligation to wear masks. Now it is said that after the corresponding explanations by Sucharit Bhakdi and Stefan Homburg, Kretschmer expressed his agreement to abolish the compulsory mask in the near future, possibly in July. There were also sound recordings of this meeting, which had originally been released for distribution by Michael Kretschmer.
But after the meeting, these were confiscated by two ominous security agents with "special privileges" and a Brandenburg/Berlin dialect. A few days later, the so-called Health Minister Jens Spahn is said to have turned up for an unofficial lightning visit to Kretschmer. Why this happened and what was talked about is not known. What remains is however that Kretschmer subsequently decreed that over the round table with Bhakdi and Homburg, neither over contents nor to the meeting at all - may be communicated over the media. Finally Kretschmer gave the above mentioned interview to the Rheinische Post with his statement on the "second wave".
It seems, however, that there may be an interest among employees in the Saxon state government to inform the public about this roundtable via an "unofficial" channel. This is the purpose of Leaks. People who see themselves as responsible bypass the instruction structures. This could even apply to the Saxon Prime Minister himself.
It is an unpleasant idea that in politics one likes to play out pure power, but this is real, even if it rarely comes to the surface. Media escapades, in which suddenly over-investigative editorial offices expose dark spots of politicians to the point of vomiting and often in fascinating orchestration, are a signal that the person attacked accordingly does not "function properly".
Some of these ugly extortions only become known later, like that of the former head of the Organization for the Prevention of the Use of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Jose Mauricio Bustani. In 2003, Bustani opposed a war against Iraq, citing the Iraqi government's total willingness to cooperate in the search and destruction of chemical weapons. This counteracted the war against the country explicitly sought by the United States. In his office, a certain John Bolton (until recently security advisor to the US president) opened for him in 2003:
"Cheney [US vice president in the George W. Bush administration] wants you out. You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you do not comply with the decision from Washington, we will find ways to retaliate against you. [...] Be prepared to face the consequences that will ensue, because we know where your children live. (17)
There are, of course, other ways to let politicians make the desired decisions. Anyone who does not go along with the unified opinion in this country of ours will be mercilessly belittled. Thus the deputy chairman of the CDU parliamentary group, Arnold Vaatz, had recently actually dared to criticize the reporting on the large demonstration against the Corona measures on August 1 of the year. The artificially inflated outrage, which the public media were happy to spread, was not long in coming (18).
Internationally we experienced the same thing, Burundi but also Sweden were branded irresponsible by the media, Belarus even more so. In the case of the latter, to which 580 with (!) Corona deaths are attributed so far, although the government has completely renounced "lockdown" measures, IMF loans are now tied to the condition that exactly this is still to be implemented for Belarus - de facto in retrospect (19).
One more thing - a reward to you for working through this text:
The meeting of the Prime Minister of Saxony with the above mentioned scientists: It actually took place on June 26, 2020 in the presence of the demonstrator Michael Grasemann! (20)
Which visit Kretschmer later received, in order to possibly be brought back "on the right track", whether this was actually Spahn, and why the sound recording was deleted, must remain open. It remains for you to do your own research in this direction.
Please stay alert, dear readers.
Notes and sources
- (General) This article of Peds Views is licensed under a Creative Commons License (Attribution - Non-Commercial - No Derivative Works 4.0 International). It may be redistributed and reproduced subject to the terms of this license. When linking to other articles of Peds Views, you will also find the external sources with which the statements in the current text are substantiated. Last edited: August 8, 2020.
- (a1) The author had written to Michael Kretschmer at the time with an open letter about the "hygiene measures".
- (1) 23.05.2020; Tagesspiegel; Ramelow wants to lift lockdown: In Thuringia, corona restrictions are to end on 6 June; In Thüringen sollen Corona-Beschränkungen am 6. Juni enden
- (2) 24.05.2020; NRZ; Alexander Marinus;Thuringia wants to end Lockdown and sends fatal signal; Thüringen will Lockdown beenden – und sendet fatales Signal
- (3) 24.05.2020; FAZ; Ramelows relaxation exercises; Corona-Maßnahmen in Thüringen: Ramelows Lockerungsübungen
- (4) 24.05.2020; World; Hannelore Crolly; Who now protects the many reasonable ones?; Ramelows Corona-Plan: „Wer schützt jetzt die vielen Vernünftigen?“ - WELT
- (5) 24.05.2020; taz; Pascal Beucker; Ramelow spielt Vabanque; Thüringen plant „Lockdown“-Ende: Ramelow spielt Vabanque
- (6) 27.07.2020; Frankfurter Rundschau; Stefan Krieger, Ines Alberti; Biontech und Pfizer: USA sichern sich Corona-Impfstoff für fast zwei Milliarden Dollar; Biontech und Pfizer: USA sichern sich Corona-Impfstoff für fast zwei Milliarden Dollar
- (7) 17.06.2020; ARD Tagesschau; Markus grill; CureVac may test at humans; Corona-Impfstoff: CuraVac darf an Menschen testen
- (8) June 11, 2020; Financial news; Faster to vaccine production: Siemens and Exyte want to build biotech plants together; Schneller zur Impfstoff-Produktion: Siemens und Exyte wollen gemeinsam Biotech-Anlagen bauen
- (9) 15.06.2020; RND; Curevac: This is the company that will supply the corona vaccine; https://www.rnd.de/wirtschaft/curev...pfstoff-liefern-soll-PMQI3PND2JEXXLFVNVTGHL6B
- (10) 25.07.2020; Press portal; Kretschmer: "The second corona wave is already there."; Kretschmer: "Die zweite Corona-Welle ist schon da"
- (11 to11iii) 14.05.2020; ARD Tagesschau; Kretschmer demands differentiation; Demos gegen Einschränkungen: Kretschmer fordert Differenzierung
- (12,12i) 17.05.2020; Michael Kretschmer shows his true face - PR visit at anti-corona demo in Dresden - COMPLETE;
- (13) Website of Michael Grasemann; Kontakt Michael Grasemann, Holzgestalter Spielplatz Dresden; Round table: Runder Tisch 2020; called up: 07.08.2020
- (14) 29.05.2020; "Round Table" on the measures of the state government to contain the corona pandemic;
- (15) 14.07.2020; Saxon Corona Protection Ordinance; https://www.coronavirus.sachsen.de/download/SMS-Corona-Schutz-Verordnung-2020-07-14.pdf
- (16) Stefan Homburg – Institut für Öffentliche Finanzen – Leibniz Universität Hannover; retrieved: 07.08.2020
- (17) 30.03.2018; Mehdi Hasan; DECONSTRUCTED PODCAST: WILL JOHN BOLTON GET US ALL KILLED?; Deconstructed Podcast: Will John Bolton Get Us All Killed?
- (18) 07.08.2020; ARD Tagesschau; head-shaking about Vaatz; SPD und Grüne entsetzt über DDR-Vergleich von Vaatz
- (19) 30.07.2020; Cashkurs; Roman Baudzuz; Belarus: IMF and World Bank tie emergency aid loans to hard lockdown measures; Beitrag
- (20) 07.08.2020; roundtable2020; round table with MP Kretschmer and the professors Reiss, Bhakdi, Homburg, Haditsch, Lübbert and others; 26 June 2020;