Overview

• Julia Klöckner is set to speak at the CDU Kreisverband Koblenz summer reception held on Frank Gotthardt’s IT company premises.
• SPD’s Sebastian Roloff and Green MP Irene Mihalic labeled the venue choice “insensitive,” warning it normalizes support for a financier of the right-leaning portal Nius.
• The Bundestag presidency and local CDU leaders defended Klöckner’s attendance as a routine party invitation and a gesture of regional appreciation.
• Frank Gotthardt, a major backer of Nius, has declined to comment publicly and, via his lawyer, cited freedom of speech to justify his involvement.
• Critics point to Nius’s record of publishing polarizing and partially false content—such as dramatized coverage of judge candidate Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf—to underscore their neutrality concerns.