Anne Will (ARD): Should Laschet become Chancellor? Norbert Röttgen starts to swim with a simple question

The search for coalitions begins one week after the 2021 federal election. The exploratory talk with Anne Will in the first.

Berlin – Anne Will is on autumn vacation soon. Until then, she will ask her guests questions to which she cannot expect an answer. But it’s just so nice to speculate. That is the essence of many rounds of lectures on German TV. “Scholz and Laschet looking for a partner – who will the FDP and the Greens decide on?” Was the topic this time, to which representatives of the parties involved were invited, as well as the Spiegel journalist Hoffmann.

But at least the moderator asked a question to which there could have been a clear answer. Alone: She did not come. “Do you want Armin Laschet to become Chancellor?”, Anne Will (ARD) asked Norbert Röttgen. Now half the political Berlin knows (at least) that Röttgen does not want that. After all, in one of his various statements after the election defeat in the federal election in 2021, he spoke of a necessary comprehensive renewal of the CDU, including communication and “personnel”.

Anne Will (ARD): You can almost feel sorry for Norbert Röttgen

The Christian Democrat himself embodied the problem with communication in the program, so to speak, by showing that he was unable to answer Will’s question with “yes”. You could almost feel sorry for him. But only almost. Because the way he tried to wriggle out of there was evidence of successful completion of a course in rabidism. Suddenly it should only come to the end of possible coalition negotiations on personnel issues, and that after an election campaign that had come to a head with the question of the Chancellor. Manuela Schwesig (SPD) then certified the colleague that he was telling a “joke in bags”.

Anne Will (ARD): More like traffic lights than Jamaica

Later on in the program, Anne Will (ARD) asked a “simple question” again: “Would Armin Laschet have had to resign on election night?” Röttgen said no, but his explanation was telltale: you need the current staff to “remain conversational “- not exactly flattering for its chairman either. Because he is exposed as the boss on call.

No wonder that the other guests, in turn, expressed doubts as to whether this party could still make a state of affairs. The Union does not know where to go, noted Konstantin von Notz, and Christiane Hoffmann confirmed that the question of power among the Christian Democrats was open. At the moment it looks much more like a traffic light coalition than a Jamaica coalition.

Anne Will (ARD): We are still a long way from reaching an agreement

The moderator tried in vain to get confirmation from von Notz and Fricke, his colleague from the FDP. He let the questioner know right from the start that it was not about the “who with whom”, but rather the “what”: what of the three Ds – demography, decarbonisation and digitization – could best be advanced with which partner. The Greens and the Liberals repeatedly pointed to the necessary trust of the potential coalition partners. And journalist Hoffmann emphasized that the two parties had set a topic with the code of departure – which Olaf Scholz immediately took up. But the possible coalition partners are still “very far from an agreement”.

If they come to an agreement, the reds, greens and yellows, they will probably ignore contentious points for the time being. The Nordstream 2 gas pipeline was cited as an example of the differences, and von Notz also mentioned the coal phase-out, which is far too late for the Greens. Free Democrat Fricke finally provided a coherent description of a possible agreement. Assuming trust, one must bring the results of the negotiations “to a level where that can be explained”. They will certainly do the same with Anne Will. But now she’s on vacation first. (Daland Sailors)