Soon After the regional elections held on September 1, 2024 in the east of Germany, a video circulated on Telegram, the author of which allegedly captured the nervous reaction of a representative of one of the losing parties. We have verified the accuracy of this video.

On September 1, local parliamentary elections were held in two federal states in eastern Germany. In Thuringia won The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which was supported by 32.8% of voters, is in second place with the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with 23.6% of the vote. The same games excelledand in the elections in neighboring Saxony - 31.9% for the CDU, 30.6% for the AfD. At the same time, the political forces that make up the ruling coalition at the federal level performed more than modestly: the Social Democrats of Chancellor Olaf Scholz were supported by 6.1% of voters in Thuringia and 7.3% in Saxony, the Greens - 3.2% and 5.1%, respectively, the right-liberal FDP - about 1% in both states.

Against this background, Russian-language Telegram channels began to distribute a video that allegedly captured the reaction of one of the “green” functionaries to the voting results in Thuringia and Saxony - the girl’s lips and chin were shaking violently from her emotions. “Green Party leader Ricarda Lang in Germany listens to the election results. A powerful politician, she knows how to take a punch, she faced defeat with dignity. But seriously, why did this aged Greta Tumberg even decide that she should get involved in politics? Can you imagine this miracle anywhere in negotiations?” — commented on the video in the channel “Tsargrad-TV"(120,000 views at the time of writing this analysis; spelling and punctuation preserved). A blogger distributed the video with similar captions Anatoly Shariy (895,000), "The goat screamed" (64,000) and "Voice of Mordor"(50,000).

Source: Telegram channel “Tsargrad-TV”

The viral video actually captured Ricarda Lang - Member of the Bundestag since 2021 from the Greens. At the beginning of 2022 she became one of the two co-chairs of this party after previous leaders Annalena Bärbock and Robert Habeck received ministerial portfolios in the Scholz government.

The video, the author of which allegedly recorded Lang's reaction to the election results in Thuringia and Saxony, is distributed in two versions. Moreover, the first (vertical) is a cropped version of the second, from which the people surrounding the politician are removed. This manipulation also made it possible to hide the logo of the German public broadcaster ZDF in the upper left corner, the inscription moma and the 5:44 timestamp in the lower left corner, and the username @BB12_DE in the lower right corner.

Source: Telegram channel “The Goat Screamed”

Moma (short for Morgenmagazin) is ZDF's morning show. Available on the TV channel website plot, aired on the program on September 2, the day after the elections in the two eastern federal states. The video focuses on the reaction of politicians in Berlin to the results of the vote, Lang appears in the report at the 0:32 mark. There is a noticeable tear on her face, the politician is clearly worried, but her lips and chin do not tremble.

The username @BB12_DE, also present in the viral video, uses social network user X. His profile states that he lives in North Rhine-Westphalia, in the west of Germany, and the description says: “All that socialists and “greens” understand about money is that they want it from others.” The blogger quite actively comments on the political life of Germany, expressing support far-right AfD.

An edited clip of Lang's lips and chin shaking violently. appeared on the profile of @BB12_DE on the morning of September 2, about half an hour after the original story was broadcast on ZDF. “The biggest losers are the Greens.” 😁 Thanks to Habaek. Thanks to Ricarda Lang,” the tweet itself says. Another hour and a half later, another user asked the author of the post whether the Green leader’s lips really trembled so much when the politician learned about the election results. “I helped a little,” replied @BB12_DE, adding a smiling emoji.

Source: screenshot from social network X

Soon blogger published several more videos ridiculing the Greens’ reaction to the voting results in Thuringia and Saxony. IN one Of these, the lips tremble not only of Lang, but also of her fellow party members who watched the announcement of the results along with their leader.

@BB12_DE's assertion that the main losers of the state elections in September 2024 in Germany were the Greens is, to say the least, controversial. Last time, five years ago, the party had difficulty overcame 5 percent barrier in Thuringia and dialed 8.6% of the vote in Saxony, this time - 3.2% and 5.1% respectively. In total, the Greens lost ten seats in two state parliaments. At the same time, for example, the Die Linke (“Left”) party, instead of 29 seats in Thuringia, will receive only 12, and in Saxony its representation has decreased from 14 deputies to six. That is, the total losses amounted to 25 deputy seats.

Thus, the video with the nervous reaction of the leader of the German “Greens” Ricarda Lang was created by the German social network user X, who criticizes this political force, based on a story from the ZDF television channel. Probably, neural networks were used when editing the original video.

Cover photo: Kasa Fue / Wikimedia Commons