Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet presented the women and men who should turn the tide for him and the Union in a short and witty way. When selecting the eight-person “future team”, he had to accomplish the trick of mapping the most important issues, party trends and regions, as well as cultural diversity and gender proportionality. There was little room for surprise. But since Paul Kirchhof, the Union has remembered how dangerous it can be to get help from politically inexperienced people. In 2005, the former constitutional judge, as Merkel's shadow finance minister, offered the SPD so much ground for attack with his tax ideas that the Union almost lost.

Laschet relies on a predominantly down-to-earth, politically experienced work team that only has the character of an experimental work with economist Friedrich Merz and terrorism expert Peter Neumann. The names of some of the chosen ones therefore have to google their own followers first. But now it's about their motivation. Outwardly, the devastating impression has spread that the CDU and CSU were not fighting for their candidates as closely and vigorously as the Social Democrats for their Olaf Scholz, even three weeks before the election. Its increasing popularity and competence values ​​now secure the SPD a head start.

Whether Laschet's squad among the supporters unleashes the necessary enthusiasm depends on their courage to finally sharpen messages.

It is not enough to conjure up the choice of direction as long as a red-green-yellow traffic light is more likely than the red-green-red economic horror.

In its current strength, the FDP can be trusted to gradually stabilize state finances, even at traffic lights, to prevent tax increases and to combine climate protection with some market-economy elements.

Laschet's team has to make it clear what is only to be had with the Union - probably in a Jamaica alliance.

Where does the Union make the difference when it comes to securing German prosperity?

What's next in social policy?

In financial policy, there are important points about which the Union with Merz should dispel any doubts: that for them, unlike the SPD, tax relief for companies has priority and that the EU should continue to slide or even reorganize into a debt union cannot be done to her. Merz can only make that credible if the economic wing doesn't just stand behind him.

Better than the SPD, the Union addresses the fact that it is not a lack of money that hinders digitization and infrastructure expansion, but incorrect regulation and unclear responsibilities.

However, the Union is partly responsible for the blockade.

One would therefore like to know more precisely what an innovation or digital minister could change about which laws the Union wants to abolish.

For the boards that need to be drilled, Chancellery Minister Braun would be a more believable face than CSU State Minister Bär, who is more known for brisk sayings.

For the orientation of the voters it would also be helpful if Laschet could bring himself to mark differences to the SPD in social policy and to say how the Union wants to keep social contributions stable.

Here the future team leaves a gap that raises questions.