When Politicians Lie to Their Voters: The Case of Harald Laatsch, AfD

Harald Laatsch sits in the Berlin House of Representatives. For the AfD. And on Friday he does what right wing populists do best: he spreads a lie so obviously false that one has to wonder whether he considers his voters completely foolish. JD Vance is booed at the Olympic opening ceremony in Milan. Loudly. Clearly. Unmistakably. International media report on it. The Guardian, The New York Times, Newsweek. The Canadian broadcaster CBC airs live how the crowd whistles and jeers as the US vice president enters the stadium. The commentator immediately says: “There are a lot of boos for him.”

The International Olympic Committee responds one day later with a call for fair behavior, because the reaction was so intense. Eyewitnesses confirm the scene. Videos document it. There is no ambiguity about what happened.

And then comes Harald Laatsch.

He shares a post on X claiming the media lied. Vance was not booed, on the contrary, the crowd cheered, even louder than for Italy. Laatsch writes in German: “The fake news were just caught red handed lying that JD Vance was booed at the Olympic Games in Milan, Italy. It turns out video evidence shows the crowd roared and the cheers were even louder than for Italy.”

This is not a difference of opinion. This is not a different interpretation of the same facts. This is a flat lie. The boos are documented. They are captured on video. They have been confirmed by multiple independent sources. Laatsch knows this. He must know it. But he decides to sell his followers a fantasy version in which Vance was welcomed like a hero. But why does he do it?

Because it fits his worldview. Because the media must always lie, Trump must always be the winner, and reality is expected to conform to the preferred narrative. Laatsch does not sell truth. He sells an ideology in which facts only count if they have the right political color. That is the core of the problem with right wing populists. They cannot cope with reality. If reality does not fit their agenda, they simply invent a new one. And they do it with a brazenness that relies on their voters either being too lazy to verify or so deeply embedded in a bubble that they swallow every lie as long as it comes from the right side.

NBC, the American broadcaster, cuts the boos from its broadcast. US viewers are shown a sanitized version. Not a word about the rejection in the stadium. Only the vice president’s name read out neutrally while Vance and his wife wave from the stands. The Canadian broadcaster CBC shows the scene uncut. The commentator immediately says what is happening: “There are a lot of boos. Whistling, jeering, some applause. It does not come across well for him on screen.” No sugarcoating. Just what happened.

Laatsch now takes precisely a short video in which the boos can be heard and commented on and presents it as proof that everyone else is lying. What that says about Laatsch’s judgment as a politician is another matter. One could simply say: “Failed.” This is political work at the level of a bad salesman who does not even realize that his product exposes him, but hopes the customer will not notice before signing.

Before the Olympic opening and during the Games, many people in Milan demonstrate against the presence of US border enforcement officers. The Trump administration has sent several federal agencies to Italy, officially to protect American visitors, unofficially as part of its deportation policy. Italian authorities are alarmed. Diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe are tense.

Vance sits in the stands as a representative of this government. The reaction of the crowd reflects what many Italians think of the Trump administration. This is not manufactured outrage. This is political reality. But Laatsch does not want to see this reality. He wants to tell another story. One in which Trump and his people are loved everywhere and only evil media claim otherwise. The problem is that the truth does not care what Laatsch would prefer.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams is asked about the boos at a press conference. He responds diplomatically: “We do not like booing, regardless of which athletes from which countries it is directed at.” He skirts the issue, but the message is clear. The boos happened. They were a problem. That is why the IOC is addressing them at all.

Laatsch ignores all of it. He ignores the reports, the witnesses, the videos, the official response from the IOC. Instead, he posts his lie and hopes enough people will believe it. And many will. Because they trust him. Because he is their elected representative. Because they assume that someone who sits in parliament must know what he is talking about. That is exactly what makes this so dangerous — and, unfortunately, so dangerous for the voters of his party as well. A politician who lies to his voters is not merely a bad politician. He is a threat to democracy. Because he abuses the trust people place in him. Because he deliberately spreads disinformation. Because he contributes to a climate in which his supporters can no longer distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Laatsch claims the media are lying. In fact, he is the one lying. He projects his own dishonesty onto others and sells it as exposure. This is the playbook of right wing populism. Turn reality upside down. Make the liars into truth tellers and the truth tellers into liars. Create so much confusion that no one knows what is up or down. And then sell your version as the only truth.

Trump himself reacts to the reports about the boos with feigned astonishment: “Is that true? That surprises me, because people like him.” He acts as if he cannot imagine that people in Italy might have a different opinion than his supporters in the United States. As if the whole world were obliged to love his administration.

Laatsch adopts this posture one to one. Reality must submit to ideology. And if it does not, it is simply rewritten. This is not politics. This is propaganda. A politician who cannot cope with reality, who sells right wing populist fairy tales as facts, is not fit for political office. He is a burden on any serious debate. He damages the credibility of democratic society, even if the word seems foreign to him. And he betrays the people who elected him, day after day, and they do not notice. Even AfD voters have the right to know that he is treating them as fools. The boos in Milan were real. The rejection was clear. The reports about it are accurate. Anyone who claims otherwise is lying. It is that simple.