Laschet’s election campaign: two steps forward and one backward

In the Triell, Laschet managed to mobilize Union supporters, says Martin Ganslmeier. But already at his appearance the day after, the positive dynamics of a combative chancellor candidate fizzled out again.

The good news for Armin Laschet: In the TV series with Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock, the Union’s candidate for chancellor has finally left the sleeping car and the fight for the chancellery has begun. Given the miserable polls, it was high time Laschet went into attack mode. Perhaps the most important message was sent to its own party base and the Union’s regular voters, who have been disappointed so far: Laschet can and wants to fight.

This was also felt by Scholz, who presented himself as serious and relaxed as the actual heir of the Merkel diamond. Wrong roles: Like an opposition politician, Laschet attacked Scholz directly on several occasions. Confronted him, for example, with the question of why Scholz does not want to outright rule out a red-red-green coalition. And proved that he can also come to a polemical point: Scholz cannot “play like Angela Merkel and talk like Saskia Esken”.

The red sock campaign is re-launched

Laschet’s message: Whoever votes for Scholz cannot be sure that red-red-green will rule after the election. It is by no means certain whether a re-run of the red sock campaign will actually be as successful as it was in the 1990s. Nevertheless, Laschet tries to score points with citizens over 60. According to the latest polls, Scholz is ahead of him in the older group of voters – an alarming development for the Union.

In a quick poll after the TV triumph, Scholz did better than Laschet. However, this survey should not be overrated. It was more important for Laschet to mobilize the Union supporters for the final spurt of the election campaign. And he succeeded in the TV triall.

Spill instead of puddle

Not successful – and that’s the bad news for Laschet – was his appearance the day after. The positive dynamics of a combative candidate for Chancellor fizzled out in a strangely improvised-looking press conference. Logging would have been good. Instead, Laschet spilled. Laschet could have presented five sparkling topics for the final spurt of the election campaign, for which five prominent figures of the Union stand – that would have been a premium. Instead, Laschet, two members of the Union and a young CDU politician first talked about the topic of “climate-neutral industrialized countries”. What the other four topics are, when they will be presented and with which heads, Laschet only commented on inquiries from the journalists – without giving any specific information.

All of a piece looks different. A missed opportunity. Conclusion: In the TV triumph, a combative Laschet took two steps forward, but one step back the next day.