How should Germany’s traditional media report on the far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD)? Some want to ignore the opposition party, while others want to expose them.
Tino Chrupalla, co-chair of Germany’s far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was the main guest in an evening political TV show on public channel ARD on Sunday. He got plenty of space to present himself as friendly and well-meaning, denying any knowledge of leading AfD politicians being on Russia’s payroll, of racism and misogyny in his own party.
Political commentators for other traditional media were outraged.
As the far right continues to poll as the second-strongest party in Germany well ahead of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, how to deal with far-right politicians is posing a major challenge for Germany’s traditional media.
It’s more often the moderate AfD politicians like Chrupalla who get invited for interviews. Far-right hard-liners like Maximilian Krah, the top candidate for the European Parliament election in June, and Björn Höcke, the regional leader of the AfD in Thuringia, are usually talked about, rather than talked with.
Earlier this month, however, there was a controversial premiere on German television: Höcke took part in a live debate with one of his opponents, Mario Voigt, the top candidate for the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for September’s election in Thuringia. The private broadcaster Welt-TV had scheduled 45 minutes for this prime-time debate. In the end, the exchange of blows lasted well over an hour.
“For the first time, positions that are discussed on a daily basis in pubs, sports and shooting clubs and in the workplace were all raised in a debate,” the Berliner Zeitung wrote afterward.
Courtesy of DW