analysis
As of: 09/20/2021 00:05
It was the last TV showdown before the election – or it could have been. Because in the last triell, the candidates mostly repeated well-known things. With a few exceptions, there was no tension.
Political discussions on television can be a tedious affair – it may be helpful to remember what you read about your youth. Linda Zervakis, one of the presenters of the Triell on ProSieben and Sat1, pulled out an old Mickey Mouse notebook from under her studio table. As early as 1993 there was a photo story about the deforestation of the rainforest.
“That means, Mickey Mouse already dealt with climate change 30 years ago. Apparently not so many comic books are read in the CDU …” speculated Zervakis – about the party chairman and Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet on climate policy to feel to the tooth. But he countered cleverly: “When your Mickey Mouse booklet was published in 1993, a CDU environment minister, Klaus Töpfer, initiated the Rio process in which we said: The global change in the climate is a threat we have to answer globally. “
The candidates looked tired
Points win for Laschet. It was one of the few more entertaining moments in this trial that otherwise spent an hour and a half working on factual questions – mostly fair and overall not very confrontational. Air filters in schools, the backlog in the digitization of the country, the difficult situation of families in lockdown, all of this has been heard dozens of times in the past few weeks. You could feel: Annalena Baerbock, Olaf Scholz and Armin Laschet are slowly getting tired after countless TV appearances and an election campaign; which is so tailored to you, the top three candidates.
“The next federal government must be a climate government!”, Baerbock repeated the core concern of her candidacy: The current coalition had done far too little in this field. Electric cars, solar roofs, wind turbines – all of this has to be promoted in order to reduce CO-2 emissions. Yes, that will cost something, said the Green top candidate, that is part of honesty: “To say when it comes to the price of fuel: It will be a little more expensive in the future. But if we do nothing now, it will be priceless in the future.”
Known viewpoints
During the discussion on tax policy, too, there were the familiar standpoints: The state needs secure income in order to cope with climate change and to repay the corona debts. But where do you get it from? A topic on which the SPD candidate and incumbent finance minister was in his element: “We want to relieve the middle class,” said Scholz. “We also want to relieve those who earn very little money. And we are only serious enough to say that that means that someone who earns as much as I as Federal Minister, for example, then has to pay a little more taxes. ” Laschet also promised relief for families, opposed the abolition of spouse splitting and warned of an additional burden on medium-sized businesses and craft businesses.
Silence on red-red-green
This time too, Scholz was less specific about the coalition issue: he could imagine the Greens as partners, he said – but remained silent on the left. What prompted Laschet once again to warn against red-red-green and to explain the choice of direction. All three were clear on the AfD: no negotiations, not even contacts with the extreme right.
At the end of this triell there was neither a winner nor a loser. Deficits have become clear, and differences have become clear between the three party programs, in social policy, in internal security, and in the general question of how many state regulations are needed to bring about change such as in climate policy. But there were also quite a few things in common.
Wanting to become Chancellor, that is, to bring them together, Scholz may have thought when he immediately appealed to the audience on behalf of his two opponents: “Get vaccinated, take part, this is very important for your health and for the protection of yours Dearest. “
Matthias Deiß, ARD Berlin, with an assessment of the Triell
daily topics 10:45 p.m., 19.9.2021
Analysis of the triall of the candidates for chancellor at Pro 7 / SAT 1
Lothar Lenz, ARD Berlin, September 19, 2021 11:45 p.m.