SPD: Party member under false name – “Handelsblatt” puts editor on leave

media Berlin

Under a false name for the SPD – “Handelsblatt” puts editor on leave

Stand: 16.03.2023 | Reading time: 2 minutes

What: pa/dpa/Christophe Gateau

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A journalist from the “Handelsblatt” has been a member of the SPD in Berlin-Pankow under a false name for years. On Saturday he sharply criticized the governing mayor Franziska Giffey in this function. His employer knew nothing about it – and gave him leave for the time being.

EA member of the SPD in the Pankow district of Berlin has apparently committed himself to the party under a false name. This became public after the deputy chairman of an SPD department, who calls himself Matthias Brückmann, attracted attention with clear criticism of SPD state leader Franziska Giffey and her plans for a state government together with the CDU. As the “Tagesspiegel” reports, his name is Mathias Brüggmann and he works as a journalist for the “Handelsblatt”.

Its editor-in-chief announced on Thursday that the political office of the editor was not known there. “After the media reported on his commitment, the colleague was put on leave until the connections were completely clarified.”

A commission will examine Brüggmann’s texts to see whether they have lived up to the claim of editorial independence. “The Commission has been working since yesterday,” said a spokeswoman for the publisher. It is not possible to predict when results can be expected. Brüggmann himself could not be reached for comment.

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The SPD member from Pankow went to the microphone at a meeting of the district association last Saturday and accused Giffey that, in the event of a coalition with the CDU, the SPD would get an even more catastrophic result in the 2026 election than in February.

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The scene was featured in a report by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB)’s “Abendschau”, in which the man was referred to as Matthias Brückmann. After the performance, according to “Tagesspiegel” information, there was clear criticism of his behavior in an SPD chat group in Pankow.

The Pankow SPD district chairman Dennis Buchner announced on Thursday that he did not want to comment further on this internal party matter. “We will have to clarify this internally, including how to communicate externally from a purely private chat group.” But factual information is important to him: “The member in question is a member of the SPD under his real name. He has not deceived anyone in this respect, is on ballot papers under his real name, etc.