The evening begins cautiously, politely, it is still unclear whether we will split the bill at the end. There are two men sitting there who both have a similar problem and goal. The polls are bad, Olaf Scholz has overtaken the Union and the Greens candidates. With Robert Habeck and Friedrich Merz, two missed alternatives are guests at Maybrit Illner, both of whom have to swallow the bitterness of wrong decisions and keep them in their stomachs while they are campaigning for the faux pas sommeliers Baerbock and Laschet. But the two try so hard at first – the title question of the show about the relationship status of black and green “Rivals, enemies, partners?” is clearly answered after less than half an hour.
In the oppressive shadow of the terrible events in Afghanistan, they are initially in agreement. Sentences like “I think Robert Habeck said that quite correctly” fell when the Vice-Party leader of the Greens said that the mission was a “moral disaster”. Even in the event of possible differences, Habeck is relieved to accept any concession from Merz when it comes to the deletion moratorium required by his party for the Afghanistan mission: “It’s good that Mr. Merz said that the data should not be deleted. “
Habeck moves away from red and thus towards black that evening as the present editor-in-chief of world Dagmar Rosenfeld Habeck asks whether he can still imagine a coalition with the Left Party. The party abstained in the recent vote in the Bundestag on the rescue mandate of the Bundeswehr in Afghanistan. Habeck squirms briefly, but then admits: “What the Left Party has done cannot govern.”
Maybe that’s why Merz and Habeck spend so long on and off with caressing concessions and sports metaphors (Habeck: “At the moment we’re two goals behind, but it’s still four weeks”). Then the moderator Illner disturbs the truce with the transition to the election campaign and old Twitter stories: “Mr. Merz said that you are out of the question for him as a candidate for Chancellor. Do you remember that?”
With a-he-didn’t-mean-that-look, Habeck replies gently: “I think that many politicians wish they hadn’t dropped a tweet.”
But the harmony will soon be over. Habeck can’t help but emphasize Merz’s excuses because of his party’s planned policy program, which they wanted to adopt last year, his Party would have made it. Merz can’t help but emphasize he would not have had to rule during a pandemic, but had time for everything possible in the opposition.
When the studio background changes, banknotes appear in the arms of the federal eagle and Illner directs him on the subject of economic policy with the sentence “We are now simply dealing with the election program”, the acid is already steaming from the studio floor.
Habeck surprises with a dissolute financial monologue, while Merz crosses his hands in front of his mouth, behind which a cool smile sparkles next to the wristwatch. For just under two minutes, the Green Vice-President explains how his party wants to create more growth: “We will have to take money in hand or nothing will happen.” He advocates more debt and an investment rule that is intended to expand the debt brake.
Achim Truger, economist for the federal government, appears on a screen as the judging financial authority. He explains Habeck’s ambitious speech as plausible, saying that it is nothing new, but something that “was in financial science textbooks” for a long time.
Still certain of his victory, Merz, who thinks himself to be a financial expert, loosens his clasped fingers and smiling muscles in order to start teaching: Where is the full savings account of the state that Habeck is talking about? “By the way, these interest rates …” he says, pausing for a moment, as if the word had to work briefly, “… are not an expression of weak growth.” You can hear the pointer clatter on the blackboard as he pounces on Habeck’s sentences and wants to settle accounts with German economic policy at the same time, speaks of Germany as a bureaucratic apparatus, of too much bureaucracy and that the construction of the wind turbines “so loved by the Greens” yes would take up to seven years in this country. Habeck turns to the moderator: “May I say something, Ms. Illner?”
May he. He explains again the planned investment package of 50 billion euros annually and culminates in Shakespeare’s sentence: “Call us believers in the state. I say: you are biting into an ideology that no longer fits reality.”
Apart from the idea of lowering the corporate tax, Merz provided little concrete ideas on how the Union wants to promote economic growth in Germany that evening. Habeck describes the tax cut as a “crazy idea”, he is upset that he is not even hearing what he expected here and “as if I were at the Union Party Congress” has to explain how growth works. Merz does not seem to have expected such a vigorous attack – the slipped corners of his mouth towards the end of the program indicate this – with this home game topic. He defends himself with the well-known Merz ammunition – “belief in the state”, “too little trust in the private sector”, “too expensive” – but aims too imprecisely at the Greens’ narrow plan.
When Dagmar Rosenfeld remembers at the end that it may well be that the two of them will have to talk about these issues in future coalition negotiations, their laughter echoes lonely in the studio. Perhaps that is why Friedrich Merz remembers the harmonious beginning of the evening and at the end he inserts into his answer: “I share this last assessment by Mr. Habeck.”
Marlene Knobloch is a freelance, streaming author, but dreams of televisions in the kitchen and bedroom. Every Sunday she could doze off linearly to the come-good-for-the-week wishes of the night magazine presenters with thousands of viewers in Germany. Until then, she watches old Harald Schmidt episodes on her laptop while peeling potatoes.