Laschet in the ARD summer interview: The lucky bag for everyone

Climate protection, yes, but not at any price. Taxes not up, but not down either. The ARD summer interview has shown one thing above all: Union chancellor candidate Laschet just doesn’t want to offend.

Quickly tie your shoes. Armin Laschet looks relaxed when he sits on the red armchair for the ARD summer interview Takes a seat. He doesn’t have big surprises in his package, but a few small ones that have it all. This is his answer to the question of how schools can be reopened despite the pandemic: masks, tests and air filters.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, of all places, where Laschet is Prime Minister, people have been hesitant to buy air filters. In the interview it now sounds like this: “We have heard a lot of skepticism so far. Now it seems possible, we have to work on it in the next few days, either permanently installed or mobile.”

Laschet has probably recognized what one catches “mice” with in the super election year and what not. Getting back to normal seems like a key to success. Children and young people especially need this – face-to-face lessons: “It is the only guarantee for some children that they have real educational opportunities,” says Laschet.

A saddle for your own faction

Take everyone with you, don’t alienate anyone. Feel-good election campaign. The Union’s candidate for chancellor promises many things. The economy should be relieved, the citizens not burdened. Climate protection, yes, but not at any price. Socially acceptable.

Almost in passing, Laschet corrects the decision of the Union parliamentary group to unilaterally pass on the additional CO2 costs for heating to the tenants. “The current solution, that the landlord does practically nothing, will not last,” he says. This is a slap for the Union faction. She had recently overturned a compromise. Laschet probably suspects that this will not go down well with some tenants in the super election year.

Well-groomed as well as

So stick to the election promise not to raise taxes. But he doesn’t want to cut taxes either. There’s a well-groomed both-and here. Do neither one nor the other. Laschet tries what Merkel has achieved in the last 16 years: the lucky bag for everyone. Trust that someone will take care of it. Don’t touch anybody too hard, understand a lot and now and then ditch the political competition.

The only catch for the Union’s candidate for chancellor: How can you embody a new beginning after you’ve ruled for 16 years? Laschet explains it as follows: “That is true, but I think those were good years for Germany under Angela Merkel. I mentioned the four world crises: world financial crisis, then the euro debt crisis, where our currency almost collapsed, then that Refugee crisis and now the pandemic. And that has shown that when there are crisis situations, the people of the CDU trust the CDU. That is why there has to be some continuity, but what is not optimal has to change now. ”

He doesn’t want to talk about defeats yet

Praise the Chancellor and yet create some distance – another balancing act that Armin Laschet has to master in the super election year. What can the Chancellor do better than him? A sigh and a: “I don’t know.” In the end he knows: “I appreciate Angela Merkel’s work over the past 16 years.” And he would like to continue that.

Laschet considers himself a good chancellor because he brings experience from a large industrial country. And if it doesn’t work out, he’ll come to Berlin anyway, as an opposition leader. But Armin Laschet doesn’t want to talk about defeats yet. A hot election summer awaits the Union’s candidate for chancellor.