A German public broadcaster has said it is reviewing its procedures after a live interview with the leader of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland was interrupted by protesters.
During the television interview with ARD on Sunday, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, appeared at times to struggle to hear the questions being asked of her as protesters gathered below the provisional stage for the interview in Berlin.
Amid whistling and shouting, the speakers of a bus used as part of the demonstration blared the anti-AfD song Scheiß AfD Jodler (Shit AfD Yodellers) by Corner Chor, an award-winning activist choir from Augsburg. The protesters also included the group Omas gegen Rechts (Grans against the Right) and the anti-fascist artists’ collective Zentrum für Politische Schönheit (the Center for Political Beauty).
Some parts of the interview were inaudible to people watching it on TV.
The anti-immigrant party has insisted the interview should be rerun to give Weidel the chance to properly answer the questions in what was part of a series of interviews with politicians from all parties.
On Monday ARD said it would learn lessons from the incident but refused to say whether it would redo the interview. “An uninterrupted flow in interviews is in our interest and, above all, in the interest of the audience. Therefore, we will draw conclusions from the broadcast and take precautions in the future,” a spokesperson said.
The broadcaster said it had not been notified that the protest would be taking place and that nothing had been registered with the police in advance. The Berlin police said no arrests had been made, but that it was considering launching proceedings against the demonstrators.
The journalist carrying out the interview, Markus Preiß, said afterwards: “I have to say: Alice Weidel was quite sporting, considering the volume.” He added: “Everyone is allowed to demonstrate; that’s a good democratic right. But demonstrations are usually registered. And this one wasn’t.”
While she tried to make light of it, calling the choir a “tax-funded NGO” and insisting she was used to protests against her, Weidel appeared to grow increasingly frustrated as the interview went on.
Posting a link on social media to the interview, which was shown on the flagship news programme Tagesschau, she wrote: “This is how it looks, by the way, when the Tagesschau holds a summer interview with the AfD in [conservative] CDU-governed Berlin – while the NGO choir protests in the background.”
Preiß said he and Weidel had briefly discussed whether they should keep going and had agreed to continue.
ARD faced a barrage of criticism for its failure to move it to an enclosed studio. AfD members and supporters said the broadcaster was responsible for guaranteeing equal conditions for politicians of all parties during interviews.
Some opponents of the AfD said the protests had had the effect of creating more publicity for the party, which became the largest opposition party in the German parliament after February’s elections.
The media lobby group Reporters Without Borders said internet companies should be taxed to create a fund to help public broadcasters deal with the pressures they are increasingly facing from far-right parties.
The group’s director general, Thibaut Bruttin, cited Donald Trump’s decision to “dismantle” the US’s international broadcasting service, saying it echoed “the offensive being waged by certain political forces against public radio and television broadcasters across Europe”, naming Hungary, Italy and Slovakia.
