In the case of “Anne Will”, the chancellor candidate of the “happy” SPD was extremely self-confident, a green candidate was thoughtful and combative and a CDU man was contrite.
The “super election year” began with state elections in two federal states. At the end of the election night, Anne Will’s studio was home to the only known candidate for Chancellor and a potential candidate. Only an ex-federal minister spoke for the party of the Federal Chancellor – and it was not easy to explain the poor CDU results.
The guests
- Olaf Scholz, Federal Minister of Finance and SPD candidate for Chancellor
- Robert Habeck, co-chairman of the Greens
- Thomas de Maizière, Former Federal Minister of the Interior (CDU)
- Ursula Münch, political scientist / director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing)
- Christiane Hoffmann, journalist in the “Spiegel” capital office
SPD top candidate Olaf Scholz tried to radiate self-confidence and was still elated by the latest projections reported shortly before the broadcast, according to which a red-green two-party majority in Rhineland-Palatinate and a green-red two-party majority in Baden-Württemberg could be possible. “That there can be a majority in Germany without the Union,” Scholz had said several times on election evening. In the opening statement with Will, he even increased himself into an over-the-top “The SPD is a happy party” – as hardly anyone, except perhaps in Malu Dreyer’s Rhineland-Palatinate, would judge the Social Democrats. Later on, Scholz wanted to show himself to be statesmanlike. “The 20s are a pretty decisive decade,” he said – a bit as if the 2010s were indifferent and the 2030s would be too.
Anne Will tried, as journalists always do on election evenings, to elicit specifications from the guests, which politicians naturally avoid. Neither Scholz nor Robert Habeck wanted to rule out the “red-red-green bogeyman”, ie the possibility of a red-red-green federal government coalition. The question of whether “Armin Laschet’s star had already died down” was not answered in the affirmative either.
Only when Will Robert Habeck asked towards the end of the program whether he would let Analena Baerbock go first for the candidacy for chancellor, because otherwise there would only be male candidates, he gave a more complex answer, which at least triggered a bigger hello on Twitter.
If Baerbock were to say exactly that, he would probably let her go first, he said on the one hand, but on the other hand: “The Chancellery cannot be quoted”. In any case, Robert Habeck would have nothing against becoming Chancellor himself, that was probably called.
Otherwise Habeck was calm and thoughtful. He warned that “the openness of the year also has a negative omen” and that “anything can happen” in this year’s elections. The executive has by no means been strengthened, as was often claimed on this election evening, especially by the losers. After all, dissatisfaction with the corona management of the federal government is spreading, and at the federal level “charismatic officials” as they have now been re-elected in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg are not running again.
Former Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière, who is still in the Bundestag but will no longer run for the September election, had the difficult task of commenting on the CDU’s poor election results. They came “just in time” for us to sit down on our pants, “he said. The “arrogance” that the Union will provide the next Chancellor anyway is over.
About the current mask affair, which, according to “Spiegel” journalist Christiane Hoffmann, both CDU and CSU, that is, their party leaders Laschet and Söder, arose a sharp, yet factual discussion about additional income, lobbying and transparency.
De Maizière never tired of stressing that it was a matter of “blatant misconduct by individuals”, but not a crisis of the Union parties. “If there are only civil servants in parliament,” and perhaps a philosopher, said de Maizière, referring to the studied philosopher Habeck, it was “not good for the country.” So, for example, craftsmen, doctors, farmers and tax advisors should also move into parliament.
Why that should speak in favor of disclosing ancillary income to members of the Bundestag only from 100,000 euros and not “from the first cent”, as Scholz demanded, he could not make clear. Scholz formulated the view that plans in the Bundestag to introduce commission caps for insurance companies would be “fought hard” by MPs who are connected to the insurance industry, and he drew the link to the “lobby register” decided by Groko after a long dispute, whose lack of sharpness Habeck again criticized. Against allegations raised by the SPD boss Walter-Borjans via “FAS” that the Union parties upheld the “one hand washes the other” principle, de Maizière countered with former Chancellor Schröder’s Gazprom activities, which SPD candidate Scholz then also criticized . Of course, nothing was clarified, but that was a relatively concentrated thread for talk show standards.
In the growing election campaign, the differences between the parties, which for a long time seemed badly blurred, are becoming more apparent. That was shown by the Will Show on election night. And also that the Union parties and the Greens have at least one thing in common: Both want to decide “between Easter and Pentecost” who will be the top candidate for them. The “super election year” could be more exciting than it seemed for a long time.
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