ARD and ZDF: SPD accuses Weimer of indirect election campaign assistance for AfD
Federal Minister of Culture for the State of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, and Minister of Culture and Media for Hesse, Wolfram Weimer, is bringing up the privatization of ZDF and the dissolution of smaller ARD broadcasting institutions. The AfD praises the proposal, while the SPD is outraged.
Heike Raab, chair of the SPD media commission, has accused German Culture Minister Wolfram Weimer of indirectly helping the AfD party. Raab criticised Weimer's proposals on public broadcasting, saying they would give the AfD a boost. Weimer had suggested a radical reform of the public broadcasting system, questioning whether the current ARD and ZDF system is still needed.
The proposals were made at a conference of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung in Berlin, four days before important state elections. Raab's comments were echoed by the government of Rhineland-Palatinate, which said Weimer's ideas were merely noted, but had no impact on the current work of the broadcasting commission.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's report — not a translation of it. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
