The ZDF television council wants to elect a new director today.

The head of the ARD capital studio, Tina Hassel, and the ZDF program director, Norbert Himmler are available for election.

In the first ballot neither of them received the required majority of three fifths of the votes.

Tina Hassel received 24 votes, Norbert Himmler received 34 votes, and two of the sixty radio councilors abstained.

With this, Norbert Himmler only just missed the necessary three-fifths majority of 36 votes.

Michael Hanfeld

responsible editor for features online and "media".

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    After the results were announced, a second ballot was decided.

    Here too, a three-fifths majority of the sixty votes of the television council is necessary for the election.

    This showed a clear lead for Himmler, but also that many from the “red” circle of friends, from whose ranks Tina Hassel had been proposed as a candidate, could gain something from the candidacy.

    It had long been clear that Himmler would run.

    Tina Hassel's candidacy, which is said to have been launched by the State Chancellery of Rhineland-Palatinate, came as a surprise.

    Surprisingly for the “black circle of friends”, who had expected that the election would run to Himmler all by itself.

    The two candidates presented themselves confidently on Friday morning to the television council, which meets in the Rheingold-Halle in Mainz for pandemic reasons. They outlined their plans and program. The accents that Tina Hassel and Norbert Himmler set resembled each other in a striking way. Tina Hassel's lecture was entitled “Space for We”, while Norbert Himmler's lecture was entitled “A ZDF for Everyone”.

    Both of them attached importance to the fact that the broadcaster should strengthen the community and counteract a division in society and should promote even greater acceptance among the entire population. Hassel allowed herself a few small tips, for example by pointing out the reach success of tagesschau.de, which ZDF is lagging behind with heute.de. Himmler referred to the diversity in programs and channels that he had already created as program director, not least through innovative offers on ZDFneo and in the media library.