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The state elections in the southwest of the republic gave the parties very different starts to the super election year 2021.

While Winfried Kretschmann continued to establish his Greens in Baden-Württemberg as the strongest force and Malu Dreyer in Rhineland-Palatinate succeeded in proving that electoral victories are possible even for the SPD with a popular and credible candidate, it was a thoroughbred for the CDU bitter evening.

Disadvantaged by the overall negative trend, management staff not very attractive and scandals, it has suffered painful losses in both federal states.

For the AfD, too, things went significantly downhill, whereas the FDP, thanks to solid results, can again raise its hopes for the federal election.

The left remains at a low level and with the free voters a new parliamentary group is moving into the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament.

Anne Will wanted to know on Sunday evening what role the corona policy and the mask affair played in the results and what that could mean for the upcoming votes, including the federal election.

Guests in their ARD talk were the Greens chairman Robert Habeck, SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, the former Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière (CDU), political scientist Ursula Münch and the “Spiegel” journalist Christiane Hoffmann.

The greatest self-confidence of the evening

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SPD man Scholz confirmed that his party had “good results” and saw the results of the state elections as an important signal that “there can be a majority in Germany without the Union”.

"A result for the CDU / CSU below 30 percent is possible, and I am happy to admit that, that is also one that I am striving for, so that we have enough room for maneuver," said Scholz with a view to the upcoming federal election.

However, he did not want to be committed to a coalition to use these envisaged freedoms, which is why he did not rule out a red-red-green alliance.

"I think it has only now become apparent that there are several options and that narrowing the debate would be completely absurd," said Scholz.

All the more clearly, he formulated the SPD's claim to leadership and his “very ambitious goal”: “We want to win this election,” said the Vice Chancellor with his usual self-confidence.

In fact, the political scientist Ursula Münch also saw the social democratic candidate for chancellor as an indirect winner of the elections.

These had shown both for the SPD and for the Greens that one won nothing with extreme positions and that the electorate was mainly to be found in the political center.

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"In this respect, Mr. Scholz can feel very confirmed", stated Münch.

“What matters most is a moderate position and not the left-wing positions of the SPD,” said the director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing about the ongoing dispute over the direction of the SPD and its prospects.

The most ungrateful position of the evening

However, Scholz's assessment went too far for the Christian Democrat de Maizière.

"Sometimes the line between self-confidence and arrogance is narrow," teased the CDU member of the Bundestag.

He found it courageous that a party formulated a claim to the chancellorship with well below 20 percent in the nationwide surveys, so de Maizière about the SPD.

The former federal minister also warned his own camp against arrogance.

With the idea that the Union would clearly have the next Chancellor, it would be "over after today", warned de Maizière, who, in view of the election defeats and the various affairs, had entered the talk, which was unpleasant from the Union's point of view, without any direct reference to the topic to have.

De Maizière rejected the accusation that the CDU and CSU were particularly susceptible to unethical behavior in matters of money.

In contrast to the historic CDU donation affair, for example, it is a matter of “blatant misconduct by some”, but not a structural problem, said de Maizière.

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The CDU politician left the Union parties' candidate for chancellor open and announced that it would first be "discussed in a two-way conversation between Mr. Laschet and Mr. Söder".

According to journalist Hoffmann, the duel should already have been decided.

There is probably no way around Armin Laschet, said Hoffmann, who found it "difficult to imagine" that CSU boss Markus Söder could win the candidacy.

In addition, the mask affair had its outcome with the Christian Socials and harmed both candidates equally, she pointed out.

The most serious allegations of the evening

Hoffmann called it “an indictment for the Union” that such a scandal was necessary in order to finally bring about a rethinking of questions of transparency.

The damage to democracy in Germany is immense, criticized the "Spiegel" journalist and expressed understanding for the discontent in the population against the background of the at the same time unsuccessful corona management.

"We are talking about Russian and Chinese propaganda trying to destroy our democracy, but that is what is really dangerous from within," was her sobering verdict.

Previously, the Greens chairman Habeck had diagnosed "a negative mood in the population" and a "deep current that can worry you deeply" in view of the dwindling confidence in politics.

Against this background, all parties are “well advised to conduct a decent, future-oriented, rational election campaign,” Habeck appealed to the political competition.

Whether it was political reason alone that put these words in his mouth or the pragmatism of a party leader who is on the road to victory remains to be seen.

In any case, the Green politician was aggressive despite everything.

He attested the CDU and CSU as “laissez-faire and a lack of awareness of wrongdoing” and, at best, a half-hearted fight against lobbying.

Time and again, the Union has "prevented and slowed down" such projects.

The most evasive answer of the evening

It was only when the language of a possible top candidate of his co-chair Annalena Baerbock and her possible right of access as a woman came up that Habeck got into trouble himself.

"The Chancellery is a singular office that is not quoted and that is also not quotable," explained the Greens chairman.

At the same time, he will "always accept" if his party competitor insists on the office as a candidate.

But that was obviously not what he assumed.

Characteristically, Habeck did not mention the possibility of voluntarily doing without a field of male participants in the race for the Chancellery in view of a field that would probably be purely male without a Baerbock.

The decision will be made together between Easter and Pentecost, he announced.

By then, at the latest, the Bundestag election campaign should be finally ushered in.