Enlarge image
"Anne Will" on the evening of the Saxony-Anhalt election: How do you talk to possible AfD voters?
Photo: NDR / Wolfgang Borrs
The emissary from far away Mainz in the deep old west of the Federal Republic had not asked directly about it, but on her excursion to the deep old east she received a little introduction to recent all-German media history. Bettina Schausten, deputy chief editor at ZDF, came to the state studio in Magdeburg to talk about the outcome of the election and just had the election winner Reiner Haseloff in front of the microphone. But he didn't want to talk about what the CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet could learn from him as the victorious CDU prime minister. Haseloff obviously didn't feel like celebrating himself, he wanted to get rid of something fundamental.
"We have a West German media world," he said.
"We have to try harder to get into people's heads in order to win them back." He was referring to the voters in the eastern federal states, who are increasingly threatening to migrate to the AfD, but which, according to initial projections, he is now apparently with one Was able to recapture parts of the election result over 36 percent.
Haseloff avoided any winning smile, as if there was still a lot of work ahead of him in Magdeburg.
And even more work in front of the media woman from distant Mainz.
Perhaps Haseloff, who usually appears to be quite disheveled, is the greatest media professional among all prime ministers.
Because he unexpectedly unpacked an old demand for Schausten: There should be more public-law community institutions in the East.
This is a favorite topic of the sovereign, which he had repeatedly put on the agenda in the struggle to increase the radio license fee (which was finally overturned by his CDU in his state). On this election evening, Haseloff once again made clear his entire media power with just a few half-sentences: He can apparently stop the triumphant advance of the populists through his person alone, but he can also shake public broadcasting (or at least save it).
Haseloff's sovereignty was also noticeable on the evening of the election because he hardly considered it necessary to respond to the many coalition advances made by representatives of the AfD - quite the opposite of the majority of public law journalists, who did not always act with confidence when the far-right Politicians in the 20 percent plus frenzy dictated something of the "new middle class" or "conservative majority" into the many microphones of ARD and ZDF.
Breathless outdoor interview
When AfD state executive Martin Reichert spoke in the first election studio that his party had established itself as a »people's party«, the ARD statistics officer Jörg Schönenborn tried to counter this by quoting a survey according to which 42 percent of respondents stated that The AfD did not distance itself enough from right-wing extremism. But when the conversation turns to the AfD mandate holder Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, who spoke at an openly xenophobic Pegida demonstration, Schönenborn abruptly breaks off the conversation because a new projection is allegedly pending. It was very unfortunate that it actually took a little longer before fresh numbers came in.
It was even more alarming shortly before at ZDF: The head of the ZDF regional studio, Andreas Weise, intercepted the AfD top candidate Oliver Kirchner for a breathless outdoor interview and probably wanted to pester him a little with the fact that he was despite the good result is not the winner of the choice. The politician, however, apparently not feeling bothered at all, replied: “No, I am not disappointed, I have always focused on the fact that the country should and will vote conservatively. And it did. And I am satisfied with this 22.5 percent, because yes, let me tell you, we couldn't expect any positive surprises either. We were upset with baiting, we were partly hushed up for five years. "
Instead of critically contradicting the accusation of agitation, which was probably related to his station, Weise let himself be carried away to majority thought games.
He said: “There is a conservative majority in Saxony-Anhalt.
But nobody would talk to you, the CDU refused. ”With that, the ZDF man took over the terminology of the AfD, with which its politicians try to define themselves as representatives of the center.
(You can watch the video here.)
It looks as if the public broadcasters have still not got their feet firmly on their feet in dealing with the strong election results of the AfD in the east.
Where they try to cheekily disavow right-wing populists and extremists, they often give them a platform for self-expression.
That drives the AfD more voters than it prevents them from making their mark on the party.
How to deal with the AfD clientele?
So how do you talk to and about possible AfD voters?
That’s what Anne Will’s talk show was all about.
Robert Habeck sat next to others, who, probably without knowing it, took up Haseloff's request to the media that had previously been spread on ZDF.
The co-federal chairman of the Greens asked: "How do we manage that not only 50 percent like what we are discussing at Anne Will, but also bring in everyone else?"
To put it another way: How do you get the Ossi-Oldie to watch the Wessi-Will?
Habeck alluded to the fact that a large part of the people in the East had long since said goodbye to the West German-influenced media discourse - if they ever took part in it.
These are the people whom the Federal Government's Eastern Commissioner, the CDU politician Marco Wanderwitz, declared in toto to be unsuitable for the democratic debate with the (dead) catchphrase "dictatorship-socialized". The fact that the term was brought up prominently in a broadcast where the AfD's top candidate for the federal election, Tino Chrupalla, was once again showing the clumsiness in dealing with the party. For Chrupalla it was easy to discredit the blanket condemnation of the Ossi as de facto not voting age as "unspeakable abuse of the voters". He said: "I find it an absolute humiliation that we need a representative for the East 31 years after reunification."
CDU Prime Minister Haseloff had won the election against Chrupalla's colleagues from Saxony-Anhalt so unexpectedly because he was apparently able to turn the democratic fatigue of the so-called dictatorship-socialized into enthusiasm for democracy.
The fact that he was walking around the whole election evening with a painter's make-up and sloping corners of his mouth like someone whose work is just getting started only made his self-portrayal more believable.
When Ingo Zamperoni spoke to him about his grim face at a "Tagesthemen" special in front of Anne Will, Haseloff said: "Inside, I'm relieved." Then he smiled for five seconds and the ARD studio turned on.
Media professional.
