Kevin Kühnert is the new talk show king
Almost 470 times this year, a member of the parties represented in the Bundestag sat on one of the five political talk shows in the main program of public television. SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert was particularly popular.
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert is the new talk show king among Germany's leading politicians. According to a count by the media industry portal Meedia, he sat on sofas or chairs 18 times on "Anne Will", "Hart aber fair", "Maischberger", "Maybrit Illner" and "Markus Lanz". While the 34-year-old won the individual ranking, his SPD only came second in the team ranking behind the CDU/CSU. The CDU and CSU were guests 143 times in various chat shows in the year just ended. Representatives of the Social Democrats, on the other hand, only made it 116 times. The dominant topic of the talk shows was the war in Ukraine, which was the focus of 20 broadcasts, followed by climate and energy issues as well as migration issues (12 each).
Kühnert was followed by former CDU health minister Jens Spahn and FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr with 15 appearances each. Ricarda Lang was also able to present her views and those of the Greens as party leader 14 times. SPD co-chair Lars Klingbeil answered the moderators' questions 13 times, twice as often as his co-chair Saskia Esken.
Wagenknecht and Bosbach in the lead
Kühnert is only the second Social Democrat to take the top spot since 2010 - the year of the first Meedia survey. Previously, only Thomas Oppermann achieved this, although he had to share the title with four other top politicians in 2013. Incidentally, Sahra Wagenknecht, representing the Left Party, and former CDU domestic affairs expert Wolfgang Bosbach have won three first places in recent years.
Last year, CDU foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen was the most popular guest - or the one with the most time - and took the top spot in the wake of the war in Ukraine. In the two previous coronavirus years, the then SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach was the most sought-after guest - in 2020 together with the then Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier.
According to the survey, representatives of the Left, AfD and Free Voters are rare guests on talk shows on public broadcasters. Together they made 42 appearances, with the Left Party accounting for more than half. In total, the parties represented in the Bundestag had 468 representatives on the five talk shows surveyed this year.
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SPD's Kevin Kühnert frequently appears on CDU's rival party's talk shows, demonstrating a cross-party engagement in the media. Despite his frequent appearances, the SPD as a party ranked second behind the CDU/CSU in the team ranking. Former CDU member Norbert Röttgen had the most appearances on talk shows in 2021, largely due to discussions surrounding the Ukraine conflict. The International community was a significant topic in these talk shows, highlighting the role of German politicians in global discussions.
Source: www.ntv.de
