In an online video interview, Robert Habeck very unconvincingly went on record for fair trial and freeing of Julian Assange

I am including the one-minute video clip here. You don’t have to speak much German to get the gist. From the video, it kind of looks like that Robert Habeck was himself unsure of what his party position on the issue is and sort of made up his mind on the spot. To their credit, the party afterwards decided to go with it and confirmed to the left-wing daily “TAZ” that they are requesting the release of Julian Assange from detention peding trials.

With a little search, you can find that every German party wants Assange set free or pardoned… even the far-right nationalists AfD (“Alternative for Germany”), which makes the less than enthusiastic reaction of Robert Habeck all the more strange.

  • Dec 21, 2020: Die Linke (“The Left”): “Freedom for Julian Assange”
  • Dec 21, 2020: Multi-Party coalition “Freedom for Julian Assange” (Die Linke, FDP, CDU, SPD, and yes also Die Grünen…)
  • Feb 24, 2020: Gauweiler (CSU - “Christian Social Union of Bavaria - Merkel’s sister party): “Assange has to be pardoned”
  • Feb 23, 2020: SPD: “No more incarceration of Julian Assange”
  • Feb 5, 2016 (!): AfD Saxony Anhalt: “Solidarity with Assange”

I haven’t been able to find the FDP (Free Democratic Party, liberals) party position on Julian Assange per se, but they were included in the Multi-Party coalition from Dec 21, 2020 (see above).

This poll back in 2019 looked at the question “Should Julian Assange be tried at a US court?” among voters of different parties back in 2019. Here, voters from the CDU/CSU and FDP were undecided, supporters of all other parties (even the AfD) were clearly against his extradition.