ZDF has distanced itself from a tweet by satirist Jan Böhmermann about CDU leader Friedrich Merz. “ZDF distances itself from Böhmermann’s statement.
The tweet is a private statement by Jan Böhmermann, which is not related to a ZDF production,” said the Mainz broadcaster on Saturday. The “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” and the VRM newspapers had previously reported on the ZDF statement.
Böhmermann had commented on statements by the CDU federal chairman Merz on how to deal with the AfD at the municipal level. “Don’t worry, as things stand at present, the Nazis with substance probably only want to work with Nazis at the municipal level,” Böhmermann wrote on Twitter. Merz had previously described the Union as an “alternative for Germany with substance” at the CSU state group’s retreat.
His statements in the ZDF summer interview on how to deal with the AfD in the municipalities were often interpreted as a softening of the clear demarcation between the CDU and the AfD. However, Merz rejected this and confirmed that the Union would not cooperate with the AfD.
The Rhineland-Palatinate CDU parliamentary group leader Gordon Schnieder had asked the ZDF director Norbert Himmler to clearly distance himself from Böhmermann’s statements.
Schnieder wrote in a letter to Himmler that Böhmermann’s tweet defamed one of the major people’s parties in Germany in the worst possible way and insulted its members. “It is therefore urgently and immediately an official statement from you that makes it clear that such statements are not compatible with the ZDF Codex.”
Böhmermann not only insulted the CDU with his statement, but also downplayed the horrors of National Socialism, Schnieder continued and asked Himmler for timely feedback “whether you intend to withdraw his broadcasting slot due to Jan Böhmermann’s repeated gaffes”.
Similarly clear criticism of the Böhmermann tweet had already been made by CDU Federal Vice President Karin Prien. ZDF has now announced that the letter “from Mr. Schnieder has been received and will of course be answered”.
