Tino Chrupalla, co-chair of Germany's far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party was the main guest in a Sunday evening political TV show on public channel ARD on Sunday. He got plenty of space to present himself as friendly and well-meaning, denying any knowledge of leading AfD politicians being on Russia's payroll, of racism and misogyny in his own party.

Political commentators for other traditional media were outraged.

As the far right continues to poll as the second-strongest party in Germany well ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left Social Democrats (SPD), how to deal with far-right politicians is posing a major challenge to traditional media in Germany.

It is more often the moderate AfD politicians like Chrupalla who get invited for interviews. Far-right hardliners like Maximilian Krah, the top candidate for the European Parliament election in June, and Björn Höcke, the regional leader of the AfD in Thuringia are usually talked about rather than talked to.

In early April, however, there was a controversial premiere on German television: Höcke took part in a live debate with one of his opponents Mario Voigt, the top candidate of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) for September's election in Thuringia. The private broadcaster Welt-TV had........

© Deutsche Welle