Anne Will taps Armin Laschet on ARD for his suitability for chancellor. And Luisa Neubauer uses the program for well-placed criticism of the CDU boss.
Berlin – Corona had the debates of the last few months so firmly under control that it was almost forgotten: There are other topics. For example the climate crisis. In addition, there is also an election for the Bundestag. So it’s time to tap the chancellor candidates. Anne Will spends the first quarter of an hour of the program on ARD trying to upset Armin Laschet, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, party chairman and candidate for chancellor, with snappy remarks.
“Why are you the right one?” Is the basic tenor, with the following: “Why you and not Markus Söder?” As usual, Armin Laschet parries mantra-like that it is about who can solve the many tasks after the crisis, from deficits in the digital world to the end of short-time working and special insolvency regulations to the learning gaps among children and young people. He was out and about a lot at the base. “I feel that everyone there has the will to do it with me.” The long-awaited joint election manifesto of the CDU and CSU, he promises by the way, will be available in June. “But I don’t need a program to say why I should become Chancellor,” he emphasized in the case of Anne Will.
| The guests at Anne Will | Your function |
|---|---|
| Armin Laschet | NRW Prime Minister, CDU Chairman and candidate for Chancellor |
| Luisa Neubauer | Activist at Fridays for Future |
| Ursula Münch | Political scientist |
| Martin Machowecz | Head of the Zeit office in Leipzig and editor-in-chief of Zeit in the East |
Armin Laschet at Anne Will (ARD): Söder and Merz as Laschet’s evil spirits
After 15 minutes, the other guests can join the conversation at Anne Will’s. The political scientist Ursula Münch, director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing, dryly predicts in the ARD broadcast that the Union will only have one chance to win the election if it is allowed that the Corona crisis has been overcome. “But that’s only the minimum requirement,” she emphasizes. Because there are a lot of other problems, many of which seem to bother the people in the east of the country in particular.
In a clip, voices from election workers from Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt can be heard who have heard: Instead of the more conciliatory Armin Laschet, they apparently want a candidate with a clearer CDU profile. This is confirmed by Martin Machowecz, head of the “Zeit” office in Leipzig and editor-in-chief of “Zeit im Osten” with his own observations. In the East there is a great longing for “more discursive”, i.e. more extreme, personalities such as Friedrich Merz or Markus Söder. “These two will dance around Armin Laschet like evil spirits,” announces Martin Machowecz, almost like a Cassandra.
Anne Will (ARD): Luisa Neubauer accuses Laschet of omissions
Armin Laschet counters that in the East, politicians are particularly valued who keep what they promise. He’s already making a promise now: “There will be no coalition with the AFD”. However, this brings him violent attacks, especially from “Fridays for Future” activist Luisa Neubauer, who accuses Armin Laschet of not even speaking out against the nomination of the controversial former constitution protection president Hans-Georg Maaßen, who is from the CDU base in southern Thuringia as a direct candidate for the Bundestag. “In this way you legitimize racist and anti-Semitic content, embodied in moderation,” says Luisa Neubauer.
The candidate for chancellor tries to pull himself out of the affair by pointing out that he has no way of dictating to the base who to nominate. “The Green Chancellor candidate does not determine who will be mayor in Thuringia,” says Laschet with a swipe at the current allegations of racism against Boris Palmer. In addition, he knows nothing of concrete anti-Semitic content that Hans-Georg Maaßen is said to have spread, that must first be proven.
It wasn’t until late that Anne Will’s turn to the climate came on ARD
A large part of the broadcast on ARD has already passed and they actually wanted to talk about climate policy with a view to the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, which found the Federal Climate Protection Act of September 2019 to be insufficient. “The federal government was evidently even more pleased with this decision than we were”, Luisa Neubauer sums up the mysteriously euphoric editorial team.
She is now using her chance to show the Prime Minister and his party what has been neglected in North Rhine-Westphalia in recent years, from the delayed coal phase-out to the braking of climate-neutral energies through distance regulations for wind turbines. In Anne Will’s case, Armin Laschet refers to the decisions of his previous government that his measures are essentially corrections to wrong key decisions made by the red-green coalition.
Anne Will in the ARD media library
Missed the program? In the ARD media library you can check out the program “Anne Will” from Sunday, May 9th, 2021.
Anne Will (ARD): Luisa Neubauer’s question remains in the room
Anne Will brings the climate issue together with the East question, in which she wants to know from “Zeit” office manager in Leipzig Martin Machowecz: “Can you win a flower pot with green goals in the East?” CDU to ensure reconciliation and not only to involve “hip city dwellers” but also the people in the country who drive cars and want to go on vacation once a year. Machowecz sees potential in Armin Laschet’s more conciliatory attitude. “That could work for climate policy,” says Machowecz.
Luisa Neubauer is annoyed that a question of livelihoods is so often turned into a lifestyle question. After all, jobs are lost not only in coal, but also in wind energy, namely over 100,000. “And who compensates the farmers for failed harvests?” The activist’s question is no longer answered, because the time is up, and Anne Will would like to know quickly from Armin Laschet what percentage he is now aiming for in the federal election in 2021. A steep assist, because he counters: “The more, the better”. (Teresa Schomburg)
