Peter Voß: ZDF virtually does not take note of the demolition of the Greens’ “firewall” to the AfD | EUROtoday

January 21, 2026 might have the makings of a historic day – not solely as a result of Donald Trump basically put Greenland on ice in Davos, but in addition as a result of the EU Parliament overturned the Mercosur settlement; The decisive issue was the German Greens, who, just like the Left, have been notoriously relentless advocates of the firewall and made frequent trigger with the AfD. Anyone who then watched “heute” or “heute journal” on ZDF noticed (and heard) no higher on this respect, however quite much less for days than elsewhere, particularly virtually nothing.

The Brussels ZDF correspondent reported that MPs from France, Italy and Poland particularly have been in opposition to the settlement, whereas “others” had issues concerning the lack of authorized certainty. Who voted with whom was not price mentioning; There was solely time within the background report for the protests of European farmers. Only Marietta Slomka famous to Lars Klingbeil on January twenty first that a number of Social Democrats and “many from the right, but also the Greens” had voted in opposition to Mercosur. There was nothing extra about this within the report.

It was solely two days later that “today” took up the subject, however the conduct of our EU representatives and the general public dialogue about it have been once more ignored. Chancellor Merz’s criticism of the Greens was quoted within the “heute journal”; their interplay with the AfD was not talked about. Cem Özdemir, amongst others, harshly criticized his get together pals within the EU Parliament for this. He really had his say, particularly at nighttime: on January twenty fourth at 12:20 a.m. within the “heute journal update”. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who made the identical assertion, didn’t make it onto ZDF information. The “honour” of the second was left to “Berlin direct” on Sunday. After all: The reporting was clear and clear, Andrea Maurer moderated confidently and gave nothing to the Green Party’s Katharina Dröge.

Is that sufficient to compensate for, for instance, the negligence of the present editors? After all, the firewall has to date appeared to be of central significance within the dispute over the correct technique for defending our democracy. There was cause to doubt the second when the Greens immediately discovered themselves on the sinners’ bench. Because after the Mercosur debacle, this level was not price 5 seconds in the principle information and the day by day information journal for 5 days. The phrase “firewall” wasn’t even used.

Peter Voss was director of Südwestrundfunk till the top of April 2007. Previously, he was deputy editor-in-chief of ZDF and editorial director and presenter of the “heute journal”.