Anne Will speaks to her guests about the importance of the election results in Saxony-Anhalt for the upcoming federal election in September.
Berlin – “Saxony-Anhalt has voted – mood test for the federal election?” Was the subject of Anne Wills Talk on ARD after the state election. But the result suggested a negative answer, because the observers quickly agreed that the CDU was able to increase its share of the vote significantly, thanks in particular to Prime Minister Rainer Haseloff.
Surprise was one of the key words that evening. Both Hesse’s regional chief Volker Bouffier (CDU) and Deutschlandfunk correspondent Nadine Lindner did not expect the result to be clear. Most of the group saw the reason for this in the “wall”: Before the election, Haseloff verbally raised a “firewall” against the AfD, and this attitude apparently paid off.
Volker Bouffier at Anne Will (ARD): Clear election result in Saxony-Anhalt surprised
And while CDU general secretary Paul Ziemiak tried to propagate the importance of his chairman Armin Laschet for the election result in his speech in a conspicuously strong (and thus implausible) manner, Bouffier, who is more and more often in the pose of the elder statesman, was reluctant. The result in Saxony-Anhalt is “a success for the democratic center”. Lindner saw the lesson for the CDU that the demarcation from the AfD was paying off.
In some preselection reports, a head-to-head race between the CDU and AfD was expected. Now the party of Nazi friends has lost around three percent, but (too) many people have still voted for the right-wing extremist party. While the chairman, Tino Chrupalla, bragged to Anne Will that they were the “only true opposition party”, others in the group tried to get explanations.
Sahra Wagenknecht at Anne Will (ARD): Half of the population did not vote
Sahra Wagenknecht from the Left said the AfD was elected where people felt humiliated. The people felt abandoned, also recognizable by the fact that almost half of the population had not voted (which Bouffier did not want to see as a problem). The former group leader explained the losses of her party by saying that many people no longer identify the label “left” with the pursuit of justice. Many feel that climate change is being passed on to consumers.
| Guests at Anne Will (ARD): | Function: |
| Volker Bouffier | Prime Minister Hesse (CDU) |
| Nadine Lindner | Deutschlandfunk correspondent |
| Tino Chrupalla | Deputy Chairman of the AfD |
| Sarah Wagenknecht | Chair of Die Linke |
| Robert Habeck | Co-chair of the Greens |
Robert Habeck, co-chairman of the Greens, tried to refute this with a more detailed account. Because in the media debate it is often not said that the Greens want a pay-as-you-go model in which the consumer should be paid back money. He judged the performance of his party – even such a small surprise – as “good”. Certain issues didn’t work so well in certain regions, was the somewhat feeble explanation for why the Greens didn’t grow any further.
Robert Habeck at Anne Will (ARD): Better to shift the focus
But Habeck wanted to focus on the type of political debate in the republic anyway. He was irritated by the statement by the government’s Eastern Commissioner, Marco Wanderwitz (CDU), that part of the East Germans had been “socialized by dictatorship” and had not reached democracy. But he asked himself: “How do we manage to lead a common discourse?” He saw self-critically that the necessary changes had to be “moderated better”. Because the relationship between people and change plays a decisive role. And “we will have to change a few things”. (Daland Sailor)
