Bundestag election campaign: Laschet now wants to score as a team player

With new faces and specific statements on key issues, Armin Laschet wants to bring momentum to the Union election campaign. At the beginning it was about renewable energies. Does that help against the survey low?

With a mixture of more specific topics and experts for this content, Union top candidate Armin Laschet tries to liven up the Bundestag election campaign for the CDU and CSU. The day after the first big TV duel, it was about climate policy.

The main goal is for Germany to cover 100 percent of its electricity needs from renewable energies “as quickly as possible” – but Laschet did not mention a period or even a year today. The electricity demand of companies and private households will continue to rise, emphasized Laschet. This is another reason why electricity has to become cheaper. To this end, the EEG levy is to be phased out.

In addition, planning and approval procedures are to be significantly accelerated – a digital, public cadastre for energy systems is to help. It is important to him to allow as many people as possible a direct entry into renewable energy, said Laschet. Therefore, there should be a funding program with interest-free loans for the construction of solar systems on roofs.

One topic, three heads

Laschet introduced three people as experts in the field of “climate-neutral industrialized land”: 25-year-old Wiebke Winter, deputy parliamentary group leader Andreas Jung and member of the Bundestag Thomas Heilmann.

They explained how a further expansion of offshore wind turbines should be achieved, innovations should be promoted and bureaucracy reduced. According to Laschet, it is important that transformation processes are socially accepted.

Swipes at the SPD and the Greens

The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister announced further focus topics with the responsible experts. He did not give any details, but the dpa news agency reports that these are the “digital modernization of the state and the economy”, “relieving the burden on the center of society”, “strengthening the center of the economy” and “security inside and outside”.

During the presentation, Laschet repeatedly gave swipes against the SPD and the Greens and looked combative. He parried questions about a change of strategy in the election campaign – possibly as a reaction to the poor poll results – by pointing out that he had always been a team player and that the main topics had been in preparation since May.

Spahn and Bouffier support Laschet

Previously, yesterday’s television debate had also been discussed at the meeting of the CDU presidium. Party friends stood demonstratively behind Laschet. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn rated the appearance at the big TV exchange as a good start for the final phase of the federal election campaign. “Attack and content-related charge, Armin Laschet scored points with this offensive yesterday evening,” he said, according to participants in the CDU presidium meeting in Berlin. “That was really strong. And that’s the right mix for the next four weeks.”

“That was a very good performance and that helps us,” said the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier when he arrived at the meeting.

Polls saw Scholz ahead

In a representative survey, the surveys after the trio of RTL showed that 36 percent of the approximately 2500 respondents said that the SPD top candidate Olaf Scholz had won the trio. 30 percent saw the green top candidate Annalena Baerbock ahead – and only 25 percent Laschet.

When asked who seemed most likable, Scholz was at the top with 38 percent, closely followed by Baerbock (37 percent) and Laschet (25 percent). The three had debated issues such as foreign and security policy, the debacle in Afghanistan, corona policy, the fight against climate change and tax policy.