German Green Party Chancellor Candidate Accused of Plagiarism Two Weeks Ahead of Crucial Elections

A ‘February surprise’ has been dropped on the chancellor candidate for the far-left German Green party, Robert Habeck, with a prominent media researcher accusing the finance minister of plagiarism in his dissertation with just two weeks left before voters head to the polls.

While the Greens had suffered declining support during their time in the ‘traffic light’ coalition government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the party had been bolstered in the snap election campaign by the political performance of Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, whom the eco-leftist party put forward as their candidate for the chancellorship for the February 23rd elections.

However, a burgeoning scandal threatens to upend the rise of the Greens and potentially prevent the party from remaining in government.

Dr Stefan Weber, a prominent Austrian ‘plagiarism hunter’, has accused Habeck of unscientific and dishonest methods of quoting in his dissertation for the University of Hamburg. The allegations, published this week by the online media portal NIUS, claim that the Green politician had lifted quotes of great philosophers and writers from secondary sources while presenting as if he had read the original works himself.

Weber claimed that Habeck had cited 24 works in his dissertation but, in reality, had only read four, giving the reader the misconception of much more rigorous work than was actually done. The plagiarism hunter presented excerpts from Habeck’s paper, which contained the same errors as those in secondary sources of quotes, indicating that the original text was not read by Habeck.

This form of plagiarism is called “source plagiarism”, which the Medical University of Vienna defines as: “References are taken directly from a source… but without having dealt with the content themselves. The source actually used is kept secret, which simulates your own research performance.”

NIUS noted that Habeck has used his background as an “intellectual” to differentiate himself from other politicians in Germany, claiming that “this is how Habeck successfully made it to the top”.

Accusations of plagiarism are taken very seriously in Germany and have resulted in the resignation of multiple cabinet ministers in the past. Habeck’s fellow leader of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, was also accused by Dr Weber of plagiarism in her book Now: How We Renew Our Country, which appeared to have taken several passages from news publications without credit.

This accusation is claimed to be one of the reasons why Baerbock did not put herself forward again as a chancellor candidate for the party, choosing instead to back Habeck.

Habeck has described the allegations of plagiarism as “baseless” and has claimed that the University of Hamburg has cleared him of violating academic standards. He admitted that “they said there were a few inaccuracies” and that it was merely an issue of errors in his citations and had nothing to do with the “quality of the work”.

However, the university has not examined Dr. Weber’s specific allegations and will likely not have the time to do so before the elections on February 23rd.

Habeck has also alleged that the allegations are politically motivated, saying: “Someone put in a lot of effort and someone paid for it… If it appears twelve days before the election, then others have to think about whether it could be a coincidence. I have no knowledge of this.”

NIUS, which is run by former digital editor-in-chief of the top-selling Bild newspaper Julian Reichelt, has denied commissioning Weber to examine Habeck’s dissertation.
The scandal may seriously impact the upcoming vote and the coalition-building process following the elections.

According to a Forsa survey of German voters, the Greens currently stand in fourth place at 14 per cent, following the Social Democrats (SPD) of Chancellor Olaf Scholz at 16 per cent, the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) at 20 per cent, and the “Union” of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) at 29 per cent.

Despite having significant disagreements on key issues such as the economy and migration with the Greens and SPD, Union leader Friedrich Merz has so far ruled out a coalition government with the AfD, meaning a coalition is likely with either the Greens of the Social Democrats.

Latest projections of seats in the Bundestag parliament point to either being possible, with a combination of CDU/CSU and the SPD predicted to have 333 seats and a coalition between the CDU/CSU and the Greens at 319 seats, both above the threshold of 316 needed for a majority in the parliament.

With the scandal dogging Habeck and the far-left positions of the Greens on immigration, an alliance with the SPD is appearing more likely. The Union and the SPD previously ruled together between 2013 and 2021 under Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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