A satirical deepfake video of Chancellor Olaf Scholz has put the Centre for Political Beauty’s campaign against the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the spotlight. The video presents a fabricated announcement calling for the AfD to be banned, while a connected website invites people to submit material about the party. The German government is now considering whether the video could have legal consequences.
A fabricated announcement as campaign material
In the video, Scholz appears at the Federal Constitutional Court to announce a ban on the AfD. The scene is set on the fifth anniversary of Walter Lübcke’s death. Lübcke was a CDU politician shot dead by a right-wing extremist in 2019.
The video also directs viewers to a website created by the Centre for Political Beauty, known as ZPS, and asks them to submit evidence of anti-constitutional activity. Its lip-synching is not perfect, but the video resembles the style of the Chancellor’s usual videos. That resemblance is central to the tension around the campaign: the clip is meant as political satire, yet it borrows the form of an official announcement.
A website and installation broaden the campaign
The site, afd-verbot.de, is intended to collect what ZPS calls “incriminating information” about the AfD. The material can include quotations of racist statements, gathered from various sources and linked to the people described as suspects.
The video is one element of a larger effort. At the center is an installation in front of the Federal Chancellery in Berlin, designed as a prison holding AfD officials and known supporters of the party.
ZPS also sent AfD members a fake letter in the name of the “Federal Executive Board.” It asked recipients for emails, photos, chat histories and other material that might incriminate the party. ZPS founder Philipp Ruch said the approach had already brought in a “massive” amount of further evidence from inside the party.
Officials warn about synthetic media
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit addressed deepfakes at a press conference in Berlin. He warned that such material is increasingly entering public life, including through major tabloids using AI fakes for advertising.
Hebestreit said the technology could affect public opinion and urged people to remain vigilant. He also said hostile powers are trying to use AI to spread fake news and create uncertainty. The government is examining possible legal consequences for the Scholz video as it becomes harder to tell genuine content from fabricated material.
The case illustrates a difficult problem for political communication. A fabricated statement can be made to look familiar, while viewers may encounter it without the context that marks it as satire. Even when a clip is imperfect, its resemblance to an official message can complicate how people interpret and share it.
Provocation is part of ZPS’s record
ZPS has a history of using provocative actions to draw attention to issues including genocide, racism, the arms industry and refugee policy. Its methods have also generated controversy.
In 2017, the group erected a miniature replica of the Berlin Holocaust Memorial next to AfD politician Björn Höcke’s house in Thuringia. The action was a response to his comments on Germany’s historical responsibility.
The new campaign again combines political theater, public participation and disputed tactics. The deepfake makes the campaign’s message visible, but it also brings the risks of synthetic media into the debate: when a public figure appears to speak, the audience may have to question whether the recording shows a real statement at all.