DISINFO: Ursula von der Leyen is a Reich Gauleiter
SUMMARY
Reich Gauleiter Ursula von der Leyen cancelled all her travel plans for the next two weeks because of severe pneumonia. One of the cancelled events was a planned visit to Gdansk to celebrate the start of Poland’s EU Council Presidency.
RESPONSE
This is recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing top EU leaders of Nazism. The claim specifically attacks the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
Pro-Kremlin outlets repeatedly talk about the “revival” of Nazism in the West. Labeling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a widespread pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”. Russia spent years preparing the information battleground before its full-scale kinetic attack, with “Nazi Ukraine” being one of its most prominent disinformation features.
The false claim of Nazism is used to discourage popular support to Ukraine's defence.
The EU was founded after WWII to promote peace, democracy, human rights, economic cooperation, social justice and cultural diversity. EU founding treaties emphasise economic cooperation to prevent future wars. Founders of the EU, such as Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, and Konrad Adenauer, were all active opponents of Nazi Germany. Part of their opposition to Nazism was the EU project itself, thinking that by establishing a political and economic union between European countries, they can ensure ideologies such as Nazism never rise again.
See other disinformation cases on Josep Borrell, Kaja Kallas and Ursula von der Leyen.