Excitement about a CDU district party conference.
A SWR reporter is being harassed during a live broadcast.
The guilty politician has already spoken out.
Mannheim - Even weeks after the party's disappointing performance in the federal elections, the excitement surrounding the CDU did not subside.
Now there is another scandal.
This occurred on Friday evening at the district party conference of the CDU in Mannheim.
In the center of the incident: A TV reporter - and the TV pictures captured everything live.
On Friday evening Natalie Akbari reported on the party's meeting for the SWR.
One topic at the meeting, at which the reporter was present live, was, among other things, the mask affair around ex-CDU politician Nikolas Löbel - it should also be about a possible involvement of the district executive in the incident.
The regional program "SWR aktuell" was supposed to go live to Akbari - but the broadcast ended with an excitement that made huge waves on social networks.
Scandal in SWR live - CDU politician presses reporter
A video of the said switch is circulating on Twitter. It shows how TV reporter Akbari is massively harassed by a man during the live images. This is Thomas Hornung, CDU city councilor and also former office manager of the Löbel affected by the mask affair. Hornung simply intervenes in the contribution, talks to Akbari and obviously prevents her from doing her work. The fact that Akbari speaks to the politician about his behavior does not dissuade him from interfering. It is not really possible to understand what exactly Hornung says to the reporter. Only scraps of words about “insolence” and “dubious journalism” penetrate. In any case, it doesn't just seem to bother Akbari, but also other people present in the room - one person asks for more quiet after all.
End of the song: With the words “unfortunately we cannot finish our transmission, our fade-in here”, Akbari breaks off the live switch and the transmission ends.
The video is making waves on social networks.
Quite a few users get excited about the post online.
Thomas #Hornung (CDU Mannheim), former office manager of Nikolas # Löbel, former member of the Greens and trained journalist, actively intervenes in the live link of @SWRAktuellBW for the CDU district party conference, so that it has to be canceled.
pic.twitter.com/nIIdo9kmCm
- Steffen Schurr (@schurrst) October 22, 2021
CDU man Hornung rows back after switching scandal - reporter Akbari speaks of "insults"
Thomas Hornung, a trained journalist himself, said he found the live switch to be annoying. "It was reported live and loudly at the very moment when the provisional district chairman dealt with the allegations in her statement of accounts," said Hornung of the German press agency on Saturday. Therefore, in his opinion, the interview should not have been held at the same time and in the same room. "I acted there with affect and shot beyond myself," said Hornung. He added, however, that he did not regret the procedure.
Akbari, on the other hand, later stated in another SWR live broadcast, this time outside the assembly hall, that the situation was very uncomfortable for her.
In addition, "some filthy insults that I do not want to repeat here" had fallen.
A large part of the CDU members had also approached them and asserted that they did not find Hornung's behavior in order.
CDU politician Hornung causes a scandal at the district party conference - SPD general secretary draws AfD comparison
The Baden-Württemberg SPD General Secretary Sascha Binder asked the CDU to apologize to the reporter and the SWR. It is unacceptable if a journalist is hindered in her work at a CDU event in the presence of the State Secretary General Isabell Huber. “We only knew that from
AfD events,” said Binder on Saturday in Freiburg.
The mask affair involved commissions of around 250,000 euros for Löbel's company.
She is said to have collected the money because she brokered purchase contracts for corona protective masks between a Baden-Württemberg supplier and two private companies in Heidelberg and Mannheim.
Politicians and citizens had asked Löbel to return or donate the money.
After severe criticism, Löbel resigned from the CDU and immediately withdrew from parliament.
(han / dpa)