A few weeks before the general election, Kevin Kühnert, Paul Ziemiak and Cem Özdemir are aggressive in campaign mode.
Anne Will invited a group of politicians and journalists to her ARD program on August 29, a few weeks before the 2021 federal election, who shared their impressions of the current events immediately after the TV triumph of the Chancellery candidates Olaf Scholz, Annalena Baerbock and Armin Laschet Should share survey results. Guests were Kevin Kühnert, Deputy Federal Chairman of the SPD, Paul Ziemiak, Secretary General of the CDU, Cem Özdemir, member of the Bundestag for Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, Jana Hensel, author for Zeit Online and Zeit im Osten, and Christiane Hoffmann, author in Spiegel -Capital Office.
Right at the beginning, the journalist and moderator Anne Will wanted to know from those present how they explained the 49% approval from the population for Olaf Scholz from the SPD. Christiane Hoffmann urged caution, because four weeks before the election these numbers are still not representative. A lot could still change, she said. And here Paul Ziemiak, Secretary General of the CDU, fully agreed. The Union will fight to achieve a satisfactory end result for itself and thus for its candidate Armin Laschet. There is a lot at stake, he said, because the election decides whether Germany will stay economically, socially and in terms of foreign policy on the course that it has been successfully following up to now. In his opinion, the formation of a government that excludes the CDU and puts the SPD at the helm would have “catastrophic” consequences.
Federal election 2021: Paul Ziemiak attacks Kevin Kühnert at Anne Will
What exactly is he afraid of when he proclaims something like “If you vote for Scholz, you get Kevin Kühnert too”, Anne Will asked him. Then Ziemiak painted a very gloomy picture. With the SPD, Germany is losing everything it has achieved so far. Specifically, he meant that the tax relief for citizens would then no longer take place, that the Bundeswehr would continue to consider austerity measures, that the country would isolate itself in terms of foreign policy and would lose its economic independence. Incidentally, he would like by all means to prevent socialist ideas from finding their way into the German government again. Obviously under pressure, he handed out a few tips aimed specifically at Kevin Kühnert. These current polls should not be taken too seriously, because after all, people did not vote for people, but for parties, concluded Ziemiak.
Kühnert agreed to a certain extent, because he referred to the sharpened profile of the SPD. The party has published its program since March and has a clear position on tax issues, social issues and climate protection. It is a fallacy that with the election of Scholz a “communist union” would take over the leadership of the country, as Ziemiak claims, because there will inevitably have to be a coalition with other parties and thus compromises. Less than with the FDP, Kühnert wants a coalition solely with the Greens. A red-green majority is quite within reach for him, if you look at the figures just collected.
Bundestag election: Cem Özdemir is angry at Anne Will’s criticism
The author Jana Hensel is skeptical that the CDU wants to make up for terrain with the “specter of a red-red-green coalition”, especially in the east. She thinks this is an “old” strategy that the party is pursuing because it feels cornered. In her opinion, people definitely voted for people, and that is now going to be fatal for the CDU. Laschet, like the Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock, maneuvered herself into the sidelines. On the one hand, because he did not have a clear election concept, on the other hand because of his public dropouts such as the “laugh” during an official speech by Federal President Steinmeier at an event on the flood disaster in July. For Hensel, Laschet should have been replaced in good time with Söder and Baerbock, after their plagiarism affair, with Habeck.
Anne Will in the ARD media library
Missed the program? In the ARD media library you can watch the program “Anne Will” on Sunday, August 29th, 2021.
Hensel’s criticism of his colleague Annalena Baerbock made Cem Özdemir increasingly sour towards the end of the program, until he reprimanded the journalist on a very personal level. During the discussion, Özdemir was perceived more like an onlooker. He did not take up the word, which was monopolized mainly by Ziemiak and Kühnert, and had to comment a few times on the “unprofessional” behavior of the Greens. This related, for example, to the fact that the presenter Anne Will asked whether the party had simply “forgotten” how to conduct an election campaign, since it had not been part of the government for sixteen years and had therefore failed to adequately match its candidate Baerbock to build up. Özdemir could not completely dismiss this out of hand, but repeatedly felt the urge to reaffirm that the party, at 26%, has a more promising position than ever before in the current figures.
Most agreed that shortly before the election it should be about content and less about politician-individuals who determine the confrontation of the parties. Özdemir reiterated that digitization, climate protection and the fight against child poverty are the three most important issues for the Greens, the acceleration of renewable energies and the introduction of a higher minimum wage are the top priorities for Kühnert and the preservation of the economic and social achievements of the Union. (Teresa Vena)
