The destruction of the CDU (german: Die Zerstörung der CDU) is the title of a video released on May 18, 2019, in the run-up to the 2019 European elections by the German

YouTuber A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006. Influence Influent ...

Rezo Rezo is a German YouTuber who in 2019 ignited a fiery political debate with his video " Die Zerstörung der CDU". (Friedrich Ebert FoundationInfluencer als digitale Meinungsführer 2020-07-01 In it, he heavily criticized the then ruling grand ...

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. The video is 55 minutes long and is accompanied by a 13-page source list. It was viewed over ten million times in a week after airing.

Beforehand

Months before the initial broadcast, on February 13, 2019, Rezo

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the earliest hint to the video: "How come no one has made a thorough destruction video against the CDU yet? Around 41 minutes long or so" – the 41 minutes are a reference to a similarly styled and instrumentalized criticism video released by Rezo in January 2019.

Content

In the video he criticized the current German government parties (the CDU, the

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social Un ...

, the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...

), the AfD, and the FDP. He accuses the Union parties, in particular, of contributing to the ever-widening gap between rich and poor in Germany,

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, "advancing with and support the US unquestioningly in their armed conflicts". He also commented on the topics of

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and

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. At the end of the video he provides an indirect recommendation to vote for

Alliance 90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

and

Die Linke The Left (german: Die Linke; stylised as and in its logo as ), commonly referred to as the Left Party (german: Die Linkspartei, links=no ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of th ...

. His video also shows

Volt Europa Volt Europa (frequently abbreviated as Volt) is a pro-European and European federalist political movement that also serves as the pan-European structure for subsidiary parties in several EU member states. Volt candidates stood on a common, pan- ...

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and as other voting options. The instrumental tracks used in the video, and other videos of a similar style, are "Drowned Night" by "Max Anson" in the introduction, "This Means War" by "DJ Denz the Rooster" in the chapter transitions, "The Postman" by Kikoru, "Visions" by Cushy, "Big Body" and "Deus Ex Machina" Ballpoint, "Little did we know" and "Gossip talk" and "It's not me" by Arthur Benson, and "Life in color" by Philip Ayers. Some similarly styled videos by Rezo also feature the track "Scarily Similar" by Alfie-Jay Winters.

Resonance

The video, which was accessed millions of times within days, attracted international media interest and was part of the social debate. It was the most watched German YouTube video in 2019.

Follow-up

On May 24, 2019, Rezo released another video titled ''A Statement of 70+ Youtubers'' (german: Ein Statement von 70+ Youtubern, later, ''A Statement from 90+ Youtubers'', ) in which they express their support for Rezo's concerns and " herefore ask all Do not vote for the CDU/CSU, do not vote for the SPD. Do not vote for any other party that does so little in the sense of logic and science, and destroys our future according to scientific consensus. And certainly not the AfD who even denies this consensus".

External links

*Rezo:
Die Zerstörung der CDU
' on YouTube, May 18, 2019 *Rezo:
Ein Statement von 90+ Youtubern
' on YouTube, May 24, 2019 *CDU
Offene Antwort an Rezo: Wie wir die Sache sehen
May 23, 2019

References

{{reflist Christian Democratic Union of Germany 2019 European Parliament election European Parliament elections in Germany 2019 in politics Political history of Germany 2019 YouTube videos