Reactions to the TV debate: How the parties rate the triall

The trio followed not only millions of TV viewers, but behind the scenes also the leaders of the CDU, SPD and Greens. How do you rate the performance of your own candidates and that of your opponents? And what conclusions do you draw from this?

CDU

It’s the last few minutes, Armin Laschet’s final statement – that wasn’t so good last time. The spectators in the CDU seating area look spellbound at the screen. Hesse’s Prime Minister Volker Bouffier nods briefly after each sentence, almost as if he were speaking internally. “Well, I didn’t say anything,” says Laschet’s confidante afterwards with an almost mischievous smile. “But of course you go with them. I got a lot of text messages: ‘Armin does it well.’ I thought he was clear, he was clear and he was more combative. ”

He had repeatedly cornered Scholz, for example because the SPD candidate did not want to distance himself clearly enough from the Left Party. And the finance minister did not look good even with the latest allegations of a lack of financial control in his own ministry.

“That sat down,” shouts General Secretary Paul Ziemiak into the group. There is applause from the scene – Laschet’s appearance likes the CDU supporters in Berlin-Adlershof. He is calm, considered and yet aggressive. “I like the passion with which he argues and that he now dares to put his finger in the wound,” says Kerstin Prien from Laschet’s “future team”.

Actress Uschi Glas sits in the front row. She would have liked more boom overall. “They were all a bit gentle. I think that’s a bit of a shame.” Chancellor Laschet? She trusts him to do that, says Glas. And yet they know here that it will be difficult to turn things around. Laschet will probably no longer be the man of duels. He can only score with his style – but that evening it was convincingly good for the CDU supporters in Adlershof.

SPD

It is comparatively quiet in the SPD block at Triell. This may be due to the fact that every second seat has to remain vacant due to Corona. You sit next to each other at a distance. Conversations hardly arise. Everyone looks spellbound on the big screen. In the first row sits the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, next to SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil. Right next to it is the party leader Saskia Esken.

Especially when Laschet does not want to distance himself from the CDU Bundestag candidate Hans-Georg Maaßen, the SPD bloc comes alive. Klingbeil immediately tweeted that it was bitter that the Union is no longer holding the firewall to the right. In contrast, the fact that Laschet did not rule out the possibility of the Union as a junior partner with the SPD right from the start is hardly noticed. Nobody in the SPD really wants a coalition with the Union.

Laughter then at a faux pas of the CDU candidate: When moderator Oliver Köhr asks him a question, it seems as if Laschet was not listening. The Social Democrats are immediately amused. Overall, the SPD is satisfied after the triumph. Scholz had found exactly the right words, the attacks, especially by Laschet, came to nothing. Nobody has seen a game changer here that could turn the positive SPD trend around again. For this it is said that Laschet should have won the Triell by a huge margin.

GREEN

The actress Karoline Herfurth also sits in the ranks of the Baerbock team. She had previously thought about whether she should show her political views publicly. But it is “really high time that something changed”. You believe in the “visions” of the Greens and their candidate for chancellor. The triall is hardly over when Michael Kellner, Federal Managing Director of the Greens, puts down his alcohol-free beer and sets himself up in front of the first camera. Praise for Baerbock: She stands “very clearly for departure”.

Not far from there, a small green group is still sitting in the seats in front of the big screen. Britta Hasselmann shows a picture on her cell phone with Scholz and Laschet, who are dressed very similarly: “That’s ‘Keep it up'”, says the parliamentary manager mockingly.

Was this still a triumph or was it more of a duel? Loud contradiction: Yes, the two men had “bickering” and tried unsuccessfully to push Baerbock aside, thinks Reinhard Bütikofer, chairman of the European Greens. Member of the Bundestag Franziska Brantner describes Laschet and Scholz as “two children who argue about who shot the ball into the target”.

The positive verdict on his own candidate for chancellor: consistently positive, “combative”, “very well prepared”. Of course, this conclusion is not really surprising in our own warehouse.