This time Olaf Scholz was prepared for attacks.
A week ago, Armin Laschet had made the SPD chancellor candidate blush with hard attacks.
But on Sunday evening Laschet never got around to barbecuing Scholz about money laundering because Baerbock got ahead of him.
Scholz was groomed and stayed cool.
Peter Carstens
Political correspondent in Berlin
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The last of the three media battles before the federal election offered Scholz and Laschet, but above all Annalena Baerbock at the private broadcasters' Triell, the chance to show her quick wit and to prove her confident handling of nasty questions. Anyone who thought that the private channels, which come more from cooking duels and boxing than from international law, would be hotter and more combat-oriented, have been disappointed. On the other hand, anyone who appreciates factual discussion was offered something.
After the two public broadcasters had provided neither a solid backdrop nor reliable timekeeping nor coordinated questions last Sunday, the moderators Linda Zervakis (Pro Sieben) and Claudia von Brauchitsch (Sat 1) showed on private television that good preparation is tough Political evening can give flow speed. And that metaphors are not tied to the seasons. It must feel like just before Christmas, Zervakis suspected the mood of the candidates. Please answer without “blah blah”, von Brauchitsch prompted Scholz right from the start, after a single player had shown a lot of people who seemed to be overwhelmed by the election campaign rather than enthusiastic. Scholz then played the short version of his program.Laschet then failed straight away at the task of saying "in one sentence" what he wanted. It takes about ten. Baerbock started to nest in a similar way.
Then it went straight into the social situation: poor people in Germany and the question to Scholz whether he could even imagine “how they are doing”. Scholz parried this with his experience as a lawyer for labor law and the minimum wage. Laschet was asked how much he would limit his life with 2500 euros and had his miner family history ready. Baerbock should then say something about organic milk for 2.50 euros and promoted basic child security.
At first the debate was businesslike, downright friendly.
That couldn't be entirely in the spirit of Laschet, who is still far behind Scholz in surveys and, together with his union, has been trying for two weeks to dismantle Scholz's credibility.
When Laschet attacked the SPD politician because of the higher minimum wage and claimed that this would only work with the SPD, the Left and the Greens, Scholz replied coolly: “I'm not doing this now because the election is going on, but it's about the dignity of the citizens and that is maybe something that distinguishes us from one another. ”That was right.
Laschet did not attack any further.
Baerbock attacked climate policy
In the next round he could accuse Baerbock and Scholz of thinking only of themselves “and not of the master baker” and of the fact that medium-sized businesses create work. The ensuing debate about higher taxes showed Scholz and Baerbock as partners of tomorrow, more clearly than with the last three-format broadcasts. "I understood what Ms. Baerbock said and I support her in her demeanor." Scholz said at one point, literally, at others in a similar way. Laschet increasingly saw himself in a duel two against one. Then it went on, after the topic of social justice, climate change, digitization, corona and immigration followed. Those were the issues for which the best solutions were sought, downright moderate.
When it comes to the climate, the SPD and the Greens want to act more and more profoundly than the Union. In an original way, Zervakis Laschet presented a Mickey Mouse booklet from 1993 and claimed that his Union had overslept the subject while Mickey Mouse was already thinking about it, the booklet was about the rainforest. Laschet recalled Klaus Töpfer, who had already worked on the topic before the mouse, that the Union had not overslept. Barbock used the topic to say what she hadn't said in a long time because of the melting polls, namely that a federal government and green leadership were necessary to save the climate. And unlike the last triell, she was seldom a passive participant in a men's dispute, but instead attacked climate policy, mostly Laschet, but also Scholz.
The Corona issue offered little material for controversy, Scholz was one of the moderators of the federal government, Laschet in the team cautious easing under the Prime Minister. However, Baerbock drew attention to omissions towards the children, Scholz warned for better pay and collective agreements, "we have now tried to enforce that a little".