]German state broadcaster ARD is facing backlash for allowing a Greens party politician, disguised as an “ordinary citizen,” to ambush AfD leader Alice Weidel on live television with outrageous claims. During the Wahlarena debate on February 17, Samuel Everding accused the right-wing party of wanting to throw gay people into concentration camps—a statement left unchallenged by the show’s hosts.
The debate, meant to give everyday voters a chance to question politicians from CDU, SPD, AfD, and the Greens, turned out to be anything but unbiased. Everding, who presented himself as a concerned citizen from Hamelin, is actually a Greens politician and a member of his party’s local leadership team.
Weidel, herself openly homosexual, seemed momentarily taken aback before dismissing the accusation and refocusing on AfD’s core message: giving young people a future free from government overreach.
Everding wasn’t the only questionable guest. The show also featured a Fridays for Future climate activist, disguised as a farmer, and a doctor linking patient illnesses to climate change. None of their activist ties were disclosed.
Critics argue that ARD has a history of stacking panels with leftist activists, passing them off as unbiased citizens to push Socialist and Greens party narratives. Hugo Müller-Vogg, former FAZ co-publisher, blasted the network, saying: “The way public broadcasters push the Red-Green agenda is astonishing.”
The controversy also casts a shadow over the show’s hosts, journalists Louis Klamroth and Jessy Wellmer, both accused of partisanship. Wellmer is married to a former Greens press secretary, while Klamroth is married to climate activist Luisa Neubauer, a major Greens figure.
Klamroth previously stirred outrage by downplaying gang rape cases involving foreign nationals, absurdly suggesting that “Australian exchange students” might be just as responsible.
With public trust in state-funded media already shaky, ARD’s latest scandal adds fuel to the fire. Critics say the network’s pattern of political staging is becoming impossible to ignore.
