Markus Lanz invites four women on ZDF and praises the diversity of his show – but is then primarily interested in Sahra Wagenknecht’s husband Oskar Lafontaine.
Four women and no man are invited to Markus Lanz on ZDF today. “Society is becoming more diverse,” says the host happily. But are four women alone a sign of diversity? The question becomes even more explosive in the course of the show, because Markus Lanz will always bring a man into play. This evening it will be about the discussions about Sahra Wagenknecht’s book “The Self-Righteous”, for which she is allowed to advertise so indirectly. After that has already been teased, the much longer part of the show is again about Corona.
“What do you think of these pictures?” Asks Markus Lanz and fades in celebrating football fans in Wembley Stadium. “At some point you have to lift the measures,” says Sahra Wagenknecht, referring to the relatively relaxed situation in British hospitals compared to the previous waves. “We’re not that far yet,” says the virologist Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff with a view to the Delta variant and the higher vaccination protection that would be necessary.
Alena Buyx, the chairwoman of the German Ethics Council, reports on statements made by a “very unfortunate” head of the English Medical Association, who considers the British way to be irresponsible. She asks: “Is it wise to drop the last measures that are not particularly restrictive of freedom now?”
Markus Lanz (ZDF): Coronavirus in Great Britain, Israel and Cyprus
Curve diagrams are intended to provide information about developments in Great Britain, but also in Israel and Cyprus. Despite the vaccination, the numbers have risen sharply everywhere recently, but Israel, for example, unlike England, adjusted the measures when that happened.
“Do we have to accept a certain number of sick and dead people?” Asks Markus Lanz and admits that he can certainly take advantage of British carelessness. A position that apart from him only found favor with Sahra Wagenknecht. However, they all agree on something: between the daring British experiment and the German doom and gloom, there has to be a middle ground somewhere?
It seems to lead mainly about the vaccination, even if Markus Lanz grimly oracles “I think we can brush our herd immunity off our cheeks.” He is concerned about the bar graphs that are now displayed, which indicate a rather moderate willingness to vaccinate Let the Germans close. Alena Buyx counteracts with optimism: “We are in a transition phase”, especially younger people could not even get a vaccination appointment three weeks ago.
Markus Lanz (ZDF): A post by Oscar Lafontaine sparked discussions
A subsequent debate about whether a Covid disease or a vaccination is the higher risk for children ultimately leads to the point that Markus Lanz apparently wanted to address for the entire program. He reads a post from Sahra Wagenknecht’s husband, the left-wing politician Oskar Lafontaine, who is annoyed by constantly warning “Corona howling buoys” like Karl Lauterbach and writes: “So-called experts paint the devil on the wall arm in arm with the pharmaceutical industry” .
Markus Lanz thinks this is highly problematic and suspects conspiracy-theoretical approaches. He discusses Lafontaine’s comments with the ladies in the group for a surprisingly long time, even though everyone actually thinks the post is inappropriate. Sahra Wagenknecht sees herself pushed into a corner where she should somehow defend her husband, emphasizes that she too has a problem with the “panic mode” that has persisted since the beginning of Corona and refers to devastating forecasts that have been made over and over again, but not like this had occurred. The others throw in the prevention paradox. “It is wrong that everyone who warned is idiots,” says Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff: “What can we expect for autumn: It will be cooler, the virus will be more stable, the schools will open.” It would be just stupid not to prepare for it. “
Markus Lanz (ZDF): Dispute over Sahra Wagenknecht’s book “The Self-Righteous”
The others do not agree to a more general criticism of the pharmaceutical industry, which Sahra Wagenknecht now wants to point out. Journalist Anja Maier believes that this is “too big a curve”, who is still plucking a few chickens with Mrs. Wagenknecht has, as it turns out in the last quarter of an hour of the evening, when it comes to the book “The Self-Righteous”.
In it, the left-wing politician gets upset about a metropolitan, green-left clientele who want to impose their morally and ecologically correct lifestyle on others, without empathy for the socially disadvantaged, for example, who cannot afford it. “I’m pretty annoyed by the book,” confesses Anja Maier, who herself wrote a controversially discussed book about complacent parents in 2011 with “Let me through, I’m a mother”, and quotes sentences that particularly bothered her in Wagenknecht’s work like: “The left-liberal arrogance nourishes right-wing land gains”.
Anja Maier finds the image of the opponent portrayed in this way wrong, accuses Wagenknecht of working with too strong clichés: “This polarization is not there, after all, there are also vegan nurses”. Sahra Wagenknecht defends her position and stresses that she is self-critical of the wrong developments in the left parties, but points above all to the SPD.
Markus Lanz closes the show with a sexist question to Sahra Wagenknecht
At the end of the program, Markus Lanz can’t help but ask Sahra Wagenknecht: “Did your husband write the book?” And even adds the comment: “I thought nobody would write a book alone”, a nasty swipe the current quotes debate about the book “Jetzt. How we are renewing our country ”by the green candidate for Chancellor Annalena Baerbock.
Next time Markus Lanz should invite men back into the group instead of letting them join the discussion from the off. (Teresa Schomburg)
