The Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM) – New Social Free Market Initiative – is a neoliberal German think tank and advocacy organization with headquarters in Berlin that was founded in 2000 by the employers' organization Gesamtmetall.[1] Through professional communication, the INSM tries to create a favorable climate for free-market economic reforms, and entrepreneurship, emphasizing individual responsibility and competitiveness.[2]

Well-known economic and political experts closely associated with the INSM and serving as "INSM ambassadors" include Roland Berger, Arend Oetker, Hans Tietmeyer, Wolfgang Clement, Paul Kirchhof, Oswald Metzger, Silvana Koch-Mehrin, and others.[3][2][4] The "brand" INSM was created by Scholz & Friends from which the INSM still receives strategic input.[2]

Media partnerships

INSM has partnered with print media like Wirtschaftswoche, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Die Welt and Handelsblatt but also influences the guest choice for political talkshows;[3] it tries to reach political audience is reached via influence on TV-series scripts, and to reach young people via content in MTV.[5][2]

Campaigns

In July 2019, INSM launched a campaign with the aim of redefining how climate change should be tackled.[6] It was built on 12 so-called facts, arguing essentially that Germany is already doing its share, and that limiting temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius will be sufficient. These have been analysed by Volker Quaschning, focussing on the orientation of the statement toward preservation of German national industry. [7]

Ahead of the 2021 national elections, INSM launched a campaign in which it portrayed the Green Party's chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock dressed as a biblical Moses, holding two tablets under the caption "Annalena and the 10 prohibitions." In its campaign, the group attacked the Greens' policies to steer Germans into electric cars and onto trains instead of domestic flights. Its portrayal of Baerbock as Moses met criticism and accusations of anti-Semitism.[8]

See also

References

  1. Pühringer, Stephan; Ötsch, Walter O. (2017). "Right-wing populism and market-fundamentalism: Two mutually reinforcing threats to democracy in the 21st century – ICAE Working Paper Series" (PDF). ICAE.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Speth, Rudolf (2004). "Die politischen Strategien der Initiative neue soziale Marktwirtschaft Arbeitspapier, No. 96" (PDF) (in German). Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf.
  3. 1 2 Oppong, Marvin (2009-07-24). "Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft: Lobbyisten auf Sendung". Die Tageszeitung: Taz (in German). Retrieved 2019-07-15.
  4. "Was ist eigentlich "neo-liberal"?" (PDF) (in German).
  5. "INSM und Marienhof – Eine kritische Bewertung" (PDF) (in German). lobbycontrol. 2005.
  6. "12 Fakten zur Klimapolitik Fortschritt, Wachstum und Klimaschutz gehören zusammen" (in German). INSM. 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-08-01.
  7. "Faktencheck der "12 Fakten zum Klimaschutz" der Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft INSM" (in German). Volker Quaschning. 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-08-01.
  8. Paul Carrel (June 15, 2021), German business lobby group defends its mocking of Greens leader Reuters.
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