Campaign organization “TheRepublic”: Populism as a way out

The ticket cost 850 euros and you could only buy it with an access code, and so the luxurious hall of the Berlin Marriott Hotel was not full in the end. Shortly before the CDU suffered a historic defeat against the right-wing extremists in Saxony-Anhalt, the conservative think tank The Republic invited people to its Berlin Campaign Conference (BCC) for the third time last week.

Armin Petschner-Multari, a former social media strategist for the CSU, launched the 2021 Union-affiliated campaign platform with campaigns against “gender madness”, wokeness and “left-wing drift”. This year she wanted to use BCC Berlin as a hub to strengthen the global center-right movement. The focus was on the crisis of the CDU and the rise of the AfD.

“Pressure from the far right and the progressive left” would profoundly change the political landscape, the invitation said. How can the center right “remain competitive while maintaining its core principles and identity?” The BCC organizers saw the answer primarily in importing US methods to Germany.

A communications consultant from the USA recalled that today it is not data that moves voters, “but narratives”. Consultants presented successful election campaigns of Republican Party politicians. Clara von Nathusius, political influencer and treasurer of the Junge Union, recommended populism to the conservatives. Nathusius knew that this was “not a sin, but a format.” Today people follow people and movements - this is shown by the success of the MAGA movement in the USA. ��People didn’t vote for the Republicans, they voted for Trump.” The CDU must create a movement and “make stability sexy again”.

Or Yissachar-Veres from the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF), an association of Israeli ex-military personnel, spoke about a “red-green alliance” in which progressives and Islamists would come together. Western leftists would try to win over voters with anti-Israel rhetoric and reaching out to minorities. One example is New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is exploiting the Palestinian cause opportunistically, according to Yissachar-Veres.

Ex-minister Peter Altmaier, who is considered a moderate Merkelian, also referred to the USA in his opening speech. He was a “great advocate of German-American friendship,” said Altmaier. “We owe a lot to the United States.” But he is not convinced that the MAGA concept will work. “If you say ‘America first’ and raise taxes and tariffs to benefit your own country without considering the legitimate interests of others, why should others be allies and work with you?”

Right-wing populism is now a global phenomenon, said Altmaier - from the Tea Party and MAGA in the USA to Le Pen in France to Reform UK and PiS in Poland. For him, right-wing positions are legitimate, but extremism should “never be tolerated within a party.”

The question of where this dividing line should be drawn in the milieu addressed by The Republic is not clearly answered. The center-right self-image is emphasized. The BCC is supported by the CDU-affiliated Union Foundation and the International Democracy Union (IDU), co-founded by George H. W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher, which describes itself as a global alliance of center-right parties. But in 2024, the Berlin Campaign Conference also listed the Heritage Foundation from the USA as a supporter. She is the creator of “Project 2025,” which is considered a strategy manual for Donald Trump’s second term in office.

The way the media was sometimes talked about at the BCC was also reminiscent of Trump: “The press is a pain in the ass,” said one of the speakers. Accordingly, one of the program's focuses was on recipes for successful political campaigns using social media and AI.

Attila Kovács, founder of the Budapest analysis company Eulytix, presented a study of data on legislative changes in the EU Parliament. The right is polarized, said Kovács. Issues such as migration and Israel would unite the conservative EPP and the three more radical factions such as ECR as a right-wing camp. “Right-wing parties in the EU are more willing to cooperate and vote together on migration-related issues,” said Kovács. Environmental issues or the attitude towards Hungary, on the other hand, would divide the right-wing camp.