The Corona Paper Scandal Discussed in the Bundestag

The following video shows Armin Hampel of the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, Alternative for Germany) on the floor of the Bundestag talking about the scandal surrounding the Corona Paper from the Ministry of the Interior. Mr. Hampel is now in politics, but his former career was as a television journalist and producer, so when he discusses the, ahem, working girls of the Fourth Estate, he knows all too well the people he’s talking about.

Many thanks to MissPiggy for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling. From Wikipedia (also translated by MissPiggy):

Armin Paul Hampel is the Foreign Policy Spokesman for the AfD Parliamentary Group in the German Bundestag and former State Chairman of the Alternative for Germany Lower Saxony. He is known for his journalistic career as a parliamentary correspondent for RTL [commercial media company] and Sat.1 [private television channel] in Bonn before moving to the newly founded MDR [Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, public broadcaster] as chief reporter in 1991. From 1999 Hampel was parliamentary correspondent in the founding team of the new ARD [state broadcaster] capital city studio in Berlin and from 2003 to 2008 he was head of the ARD South Asia studio in New Delhi as foreign correspondent.

Video transcript:

00:03   Thank you, Madam President, ladies and gentlemen.
00:07   “It Began with a Lie,” was the title of a documentary about the deployment of German forces
00:14   in the former Yugoslavia in violation of international law.
00:18   “It began with a lie” also refers to one of the biggest scandals
00:21   currently in our country. Namely, that in an upper-level government council,
00:30   a deputy head within the Ministry of the Interior, did nothing more than his duty by drawing up
00:37   an 80-page report which packed a punch, and sent it to all departments as well as to his superiors,
00:44   along with the responsible minister. The lie came from the ministry which replied immediately,
00:49   saying that he had leaked this report to the press. Ladies and gentlemen, the man did not do that.
00:54   He is a man of such decency that is seldom met.
00:59   A decency that is seldom seen these days. You won’t be laughing for long, because he stands for
01:07   those working within these ministries, who see themselves
01:10   as civil servants and not as party servants.
01:13   This is an increasing trend in all branches of our government.
01:17   It is increasing, because you from the established parties
01:23   have created this mentality here for years.
01:30   Cuddling instead of contradicting. Serving the party, instead of serving the country.
01:36   Here is the conclusion from the high-level government councilman [Stephan] Kohn’s
01:40   excellently written 80-page report on this current crisis.
01:44   I will quote from his letter to his minister on whom he relied.
01:49   He took his minister’s words seriously when the latter said
01:53   in his inaugural speech that he wanted their opinion,
01:56   from those people who worked for him.
01:59   He said he wanted to use their experience in order to make his decisions.
02:02   He not only asked for their opinions, he even asked to be challenged,
02:06   and he assured that there would be
02:09   no negative consequences for those who did so.
02:13   The gentleman has now been granted an immediate leave of absence,
02:17   and a further career in the Ministry of the Interior
02:21   will certainly not be possible for him. However, ladies and gentlemen,
02:25   this study has tremendous explosive power.
02:28   He didn’t write this alone in his little cubicle, ladies and gentlemen.
02:32   He involved all the departments of his branch that are noted as “CM” — crisis management.
02:37   He even gathered outside expertise.
02:41   He came to the naturally frightening conclusion that
02:46   the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Health and the Chancellor
02:51   have been fooling the German people for weeks with a false alarm.
02:55   He warned against the consequences of
02:59   feeding disinformation to the population.
03:03   The federal government produces fake news. What could be worse
03:07   for a federal government than to receive such a monstrous accusation from its own employees?
03:19   Listen carefully, my colleague: right now,
03:23   these measures are causing more serious damage with each passing day.
03:27   Livelihoods are damaged and health is damaged.
03:30   Large numbers of avoidable deaths are being caused by so-called
03:34   protective measures. Do you still want to contradict this fact?
03:37   These deaths are caused by the actions of Crisis Management,
03:41   by the federal interior minister, and he is responsible for them.
03:46   It’s the greatest declaration of bankruptcy that this republic has ever experienced
03:51   from any ministry, ladies and gentlemen.
03:56   So then, read through the 80-page report and the 100 pages of source information.
04:00   Every single one of you could have read it.
04:04   Not once has anyone challenged the contents of the report.
04:09   There is no contradiction from this parliament.
04:12   The only accusation was that the author did not use the official channels.
04:16   That’s all you can think of! Even more shocking is that
04:20   the media agree with this. They support you, because
04:23   the mainstream media is in bed with you. You know what, Ms. colleague,
04:27   I’ll tell you one thing: I was head of the ARD [state broadcasting] studio
04:30   in Berlin. I would have immediately made this into a special report
04:33   and produced several broadcasts on the subject.
04:36   It was mentioned as a side note on the news. That was it. That’s journalism today in this country,
04:40   for which you are partly responsible. That’s how it is. Cuddly journalism is what it’s called.
04:48   This official was put out to pasture by the interior minister of Germany, ladies and gentlemen,
04:54   because he used government paper. What was he supposed to use? Pages from his poetry book?
05:02   The man works for this ministry. He deserves to use this paper.
05:06   This scandal is so egregious, and we’re not going to let you get away with it.
05:10   We’re going to go through every single point and confront you with it.
05:14   If someone like Mr. Seehofer had a grain of decency in him,
05:17   he would submit his resignation immediately
05:20   after such a report. It the only thing anyone would expect. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
 

One thought on “The Corona Paper Scandal Discussed in the Bundestag

  1. Everything is scandal. Since Merkel too the office , of Germans don’t wake up now , it’s almost over , getting in speedy way ..

Comments are closed.