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Friedrich Merz at the CDU regional conference in Hanover

Photo: Peter Hartenfeser / Hartenfelser / IMAGO

The NDR was reporting live from a CDU regional conference in Hanover as part of the program “Hello Lower Saxony” when suddenly an incident occurred: a man behind the reporter stood up, went to her and appeared in the middle of the picture, in the middle of her live -Comment.

“Can you do that somewhere else?” he asks and then grabs NDR reporter Katharina Seiler’s microphone and crumples it up.

The journalist has just spoken the last sentence of her live report, she is petrified and visibly stunned by the intervention.

Then she pushes the man out of the picture and reprimands him: "It doesn't work like that!" The station switches back to the studio, NDR presenter Jan Starkebaum asks the viewers to apologize for the disruption.

The NDR published the report from the CDU conference on the Internet, the bizarre appearance of the visitor is around minute 1:15, i.e. shortly before the end.

The short clip went viral on social media, and representatives from the station are getting involved in the discussion.

»Our reporter went live from a position that the #CDU organizers had planned.

Nevertheless, a group of older delegates felt disturbed, one of them so much that he wanted to cancel the broadcast," says Thorsten Hapke, editor-in-chief at NDR Lower Saxony, describing the situation.

Apparently there was a quick reaction from the CDU leadership, writes Hapke.

"CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann apologized - which wasn't necessary, no one can blame individual misconduct." Everything is good for Hapke.

“Case closed.” When asked why the reporter was standing so close to the audience when she went live on the air, Hapke also had an answer: That was “the normal reporter position at every party conference.”

The regional conference in Hanover was the second of a total of six events at which the CDU wants to discuss the draft of its new basic program - and at the same time the only one in northern Germany.

A federal party conference is then scheduled to decide on the new CDU basic program in May.

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