The appearance of AfD politician Alice Weidel on “Markus Lanz” on ZDF caused heated discussions and a protest in front of the TV studio.
Hamburg – An AfD politician on a talk show on public television. This fact caused heated discussions in the run-up to the ZDF talk show “Markus Lanz” on Tuesday evening (May 4th, 2021). For some time now, the debate has been simmering about whether right-wing populist parties should be offered a platform. The criticism of the invitation of the AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel in the panel discussion was correspondingly great. And it went even further.
In front of the TV studio of the production company Fernsehmacher in Hamburg-Bahrenfeld, around 30 AfD opponents took Alice Weidel’s TV appearance as an opportunity to protest against the AfD’s policies. When Weidel arrived at the TV studio on Tuesday afternoon, the first demonstrators had come together. Previously, the alliance “Stand up against racism” had made the talk show appearance of the AfD politician public via Twitter and called for the protest. Like the Hamburger Morgenpost, the police were on site and secured the area around the television studio. According to the police, there were no incidents at the rally.
Alice Weidels (AfD) controversial TV appearance at Markus Lanz: invitation causes criticism
Most recently, the discussion boiled up after an appearance by AfD federal spokesman Jörg Meuthen in March 2021. At that time, as a guest at Markus Lanz, Meuthen complained that AfD members were only rarely invited to talk shows on the subject of the corona pandemic. As the Focus reports, Lanz responded that Alice Weidel in particular had already turned down several invitations to his show. “I don’t understand why she doesn’t just face the conversation,” the presenter of the ZDF talk show is quoted as saying. So now she took part in the panel discussion. She announced her joint application as AfD top candidate for the election campaign for the federal elections in 2021 with party chairman Tino Chrupalla.
In addition to Alice Weidel, there was also the microbiologist and Professor Timo Ulrichs, who corrected Weidel several times, especially with regard to curfew and corona vaccination requirements, and pointed out misinterpretations of corona data. “Your party also has a bit of a problem with numbers, data and facts,” said Ulrichs in a calm voice. The nightly curfew was also a topic of conversation. After Weidel expressed her lack of understanding for the Corona measure that had been decided, Ulrichs instructed the AfD politician about the basic idea of the exit restriction between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Alice Weidels (AfD) TV appearance at Markus Lanz: Wave of criticism on Twitter
Weidel’s further twisted attempts at justification were nipped in the bud by Markus Lanz. But that was all “nonsense”, replied Weidel. It was the starting shot for a real Gaga verbal battle between the AfD parliamentary group chairman and the ZDF presenter in the further course of the program. Highlight: a memorable “Yes.” – “No.” – “Yes.” – “No.” – dialogue.
In the social media, however, the main question was whether AfD politicians should be offered such a platform at all. “What happened yesterday at #Lanz doesn’t work at all. You don’t give fascism a stage ”, you can read on Twitter. In another post it says: “You don’t discuss with a fascist like #Weidel & you don’t greet her ‘warmly’ and ‘is very happy’ that she is there”. (yw)
