As Germany’s federal election approaches on 23 February, the Archdiocese of Freiburg's <em>Wahlkompass</em> (Election Compass) initiative has launched an AI chatbot with the aim of assisting Catholic voters in their decision-making.
While an arguably noble aim, recent reports indicate that the artificial intelligence-based app has a decidedly left-wing bias.
On the face of it, the party which most resonates with Catholic voters should be the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which today upholds Catholic social teachings, emphasising subsidiarity, family values and social justice.
It also has strong ties to the Catholic Church, with organisations like the Catholic Workers’ Movement (KAB) influencing policy.
But a test recently conducted by the German-language Catholic news agency <em>CNA Deutsch</em> showed that the AI app seems to favour the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the flailing party led by floundering German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.
When asked, for example, whether the SDP aligns with Catholic values, the chatbot gave an overwhelmingly positive response:
“The SPD is committed to social justice, economic growth and sustainability, which align with Catholic social teaching.”
However, as <em>CNA Deutsch</em> highlights, the truth is that the SPD not only supports same-sex marriage, it explicitly supports abortion rights, and even plans to abolish Section 218 of the German Criminal Code, which makes abortion in Germany a criminal offence apart from under certain conditions.
Meanwhile, <em>CNA Deutsch</em> stresses how the decidedly anti-abortion stance of the two major parties on the Right – the CDU <em>and</em> the hard-right Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany)/AfD – is not even mentioned.
Given these reports about the Electoral Compass chatbot's supposed political leanings, I decided to test it out myself, starting off with the hard-left Die Linke (The Left) party. <br><br>Writing in German, I asked: “Is Die Linke a good choice for Catholics?” to which it suggested: “In its election programme, Die Linke is committed to social justice, peace and ecological sustainability. It emphasises the importance of social security and the fight against poverty and inequality.
“These concerns can be harmonised with the principles of Catholic social teaching, such as the option for the poor and the integrity of creation.”
But here the chatbot fails to provide what is also, surely, crucial information for Catholic voters.
Specifically, it does not mention that Die Linke began as a fusion of two parties, one of which was the successor to the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the ruling party of the communist East German regime, which actively persecuted religious groups, including Catholics.<br><br>The authoritarian regime suppressed and terrorised Catholics through surveillance, imprisonment, closing Catholic schools and even using the brutal secret state police, the infamous Stasi, to spy on priests. <br><br>Similarly important information is surely how Die Linke is fiercely secular and has even be overtly hostile to the Church.
In 2014, for example, Bundestag member Raju Sharma said: "The Catholic Church clings to outdated structures and systematically obstructs progress on equality and social justice."
The SPD and Die Linke are no longer the only left-wing players in this election, as there is Sahra Wagenknecht, a left-wing radical who formerly ran Die Linke party, before she broke away to form the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) party. <br><br>I put the following question to the bot, “How does BSW's policy align with the principles of Catholic social teaching?”, and its answer was very revealing.<br><br>It started saying how the party’s emphasis on social justice and support for families may resonate with Catholic values.<br><br>But again, critical information that the app should, but does not, disclose is that Wagenknecht has adopted migration policies in line with the hard-right. <br><br>Unlike the hard-left Die Linke, or the even the centre-left Green party, for example, Wagenknecht has argued that rejected asylum seekers should not continue receiving social benefits. And she has even called for a significant reduction in annual immigration, suggesting a return to levels that existed in the early 2000s, of around 50,000 per year, and even called for the deportation of migrants who commit serious crimes.
Though these migration policies are very similar to that of the hard-right AfD, the chatbot is extremely gentle in how it handles this in relation to the BSW, describing “aspects that require critical consideration, such as the strict migration policy, which could contradict the principle of solidarity and universal human dignity”.
This response is absolutely nothing like the clear condemnation the AI app gives of the hard-right AfD.<br><br>Asking the exact same question: “How does the AfD's policy align with the principles of Catholic social teaching?”, the app gives an overtly hostile response to the party.<br><br>“The political views of the AfD show significant deviations from the principles of Catholic social teaching in several aspects. The AfD emphasises a culturally homogenous society and rejects multiculturalism, which is contrary to the principle of solidarity and universal human dignity of Catholic social teaching.
“Its strict migration policy is often perceived as discriminatory and is not in line with the Christian commandment of love for one's neighbour.<br><br>“Furthermore, the AfD is criticised by the German Bishops' Conference for its ethno-nationalist views, which are considered incompatible with the Christian image of humanity. These positions contradict the principles of Catholic social teaching, which emphasise the dignity of every human being and the promotion of the common good.”
The similarities around all this with the recent US election are striking. Just as Donald Trump and his Republican Party staked a claim to most closely align with Catholic values – arguably succeeding – a similar argument can be made in Germany with the AfD. <br><br>Study the manifestos of the various parties and you just cannot avoid the fact that when it comes to fundamental issues concerning Catholics, from abortion to same-sex marriage, to preserving traditional gender norms versus the overt promotion of LGBTQ+ rights, it is the AfD whose values often appear to align more closely with Catholic teachings.
For those unnerved by the AfD’s nationalist rhetoric, or its hard-line stance on uncontrolled mass immigration, this may come as a bitter pill to swallow.
Nevertheless, an app launched by the German Catholic Church to guide Catholic voters should, at the very least, be more honestly forthcoming in its assessments.
<a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/panic-is-not-the-answer-to-afd-victory-in-former-east-german-region/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><strong><em>RELATED: Panic is not the answer to AfD victory in former East German region</em></strong></mark></a><br><br><em>Photo: Activists wearing masks of (left to right) co-leader and main candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Alice Weidel, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, US President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Vice President JD Vance, hold up a placard which reads 'More Warming More War' as they stage a protest against the perceived support of the US and Russia for the AfD party in front of the landmark Brandenburg Gate ahead of the upcoming German elections, Berlin, Germany, 20 February 2025. (Photo by DAVID GANNON/AFP via Getty Images.)</em>
