CDU against public law: TV people and party in migration zoff - Merz' General calls for "consequences"
Created: 01/13/2023 17:29
By: Florian Naumann
CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja (l) and Friedrich Merz, CDU Federal Chairman, in Berlin.
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
Did a WDR satirist “rush” against the CDU?
The party comes into conflict with ÖR journalists several times in the migration debate.
Berlin/Düsseldorf – After the New Year's Eve riots in Berlin, a sometimes heated debate on migration broke out in Germany.
Almost always right in the middle: The CDU.
Party leader Friedrich Merz delivered what was probably the greatest excitement on "Lanz" on ZDF: his speech about "little pashas" in German schools - coined, apparently mainly for children of people of Arab origin.
In Berlin, the CDU inquiry into the first names of
German
suspects on New Year's Eve also heated up tempers.
Criticism did not follow too closely.
Merz' fellow discussant Marcel Fratzscher later clearly distanced himself from
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
But also several well-known faces from the public service media have recently been fierce, sometimes polemical criticism.
The CDU is countering this sharply: Ex-minister Julia Klöckner criticized the broadcasters in principle – General Secretary Mario Czaja threatened a WDR journalist with a complaint to the director.
CDU complains about "baiting" from WDR satirists: Czaja wants to contact directors
The reason for Czaja's outrage: The WDR presenter and satirist Jean-Philippe Kindler had expressed himself in a video with pithy words.
"The CDU is our enemy," he said in an Instagram clip on January 7th.
"I can already hear the synapses violated by liberalism speaking again: 'You can't say that like that, you leave the ground of democratic exchange,'" said Kindler in a sarcastic tone.
"I want radicalization against this shitty party," the TV man continued to rant.
When it says, "Those were the bad foreigners who banged on New Year's Eve," the political exchange ended and "the agitation" had to begin.
That was "baiting" - and he now wanted to call for it, explained Kindler in the clip;
“completely without irony”: “Anyone who doubts that people should be treated equally and as equals must be combated in the most radical way as a political enemy”.
Czaja responded on Friday (January 13).
"No GEZ fees for such agitation!" He demanded in a tweet: "I will contact the director of WDR.
That must have consequences.” As a WDR employee, Kindler called “in an unbearable way to fight against us”.
CDU politician Klöckner in dispute with ZDF meteorologist Terli: "This is how you advertise …"
Klöckner and the ZDF TV meteorologist Özden Terli had already clashed on Thursday – also on Twitter.
Interestingly, the “you” and “we” also played a role here.
Terli initially reproached Sepp Müller, a member of the Bundestag, with a view to his CDU: "You are on the brink".
Müller had previously defended Merz with reference to an article in the
world
and quoted ex-CSU boss Edmund Stoiber.
"Anyone who riots will be kicked out, and anyone who doesn't speak German won't even get in."
Klöckner attested to Terli's impermissible formation of fronts - she indirectly threatened dwindling support for broadcasts and their possible increase.
",Your'.
This is how you advertise the independence of the ÖR,” she tweeted.
"But people in parliament like to use those who are declared 'disgusting' across the board when it comes to votes for fee increases." Defending the public broadcasters is "increasingly difficult" for her.
Terli referred to using his private account – and complained that one should not criticize the CDU.
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Czaja, however, received extremely mixed reactions.
There was talk of a "creepy view of democracy" in the comments, but also of further complaint initiatives against the WDR.
The CDU General Secretary received possibly unwelcome support from the AfD.
"It is remarkable that the CDU first has to suffer what the AfD has been experiencing every day since 2013 from the ÖRR in order to become active itself and to criticize this undemocratic, tendentious agitation," replied MEP Bernhard Zimniok.
In the New Year's Eve debate, political competitors of the CDU had already accused the AfD of rapprochement.
Behind the question about suspects' first names, the Berlin Left MP Nik Schrader recognized the right-wing populists as a role model.
In Saarland, the AfD actually started a similar query some time ago.
Schrader now spoke of a "summit of shabbiness".
Masala complained about the migration debate – the CDU was again at odds with the public sector
The military expert Carlo Masala, who was often cited in the Ukraine war, also criticized an inappropriate debate in “Lanz”, but without explicitly naming the CDU.
In any case, the topic remains emotional – and, according to the CDU, also a media problem.
Czaja's predecessor Paul Ziemiak rated the dispute over Merz in a tweet as an example of a "controlled debate".
The controversial clip of Merz' appearance leaves out important elements, he complained and referred to a passage in which the CDU leader had defended the majority of migrants and their descendants against general allegations.
In the eye of the beholder, it is up to you whether Merz's statements should still be considered populist.
The conflict between the conservatives and the public broadcasters is nothing new.
Some time ago there was a debate about a WDR children's choir that sang about "grandma" as an "environmental pig".
Opposition to broadcasting fees is also a very popular topic, as was recently shown in Saxony-Anhalt.
In the case of "environmental sow" like today, however, the question of the limits of satire could become virulent.
At least Kindler calls himself a "satirist" on his homepage and was also on tour as a humorist.
His self-promotion is as follows: "Jean-Philippe KIndler (...) is able to portray the political in a sharp, humorous but also touching way." (
fn
)