–Perhaps he has become a little more melancholy, but otherwise just the same: Armin Laschet in the first TV interview after the CDU election debacle. Convinced that I was the right candidate. Seriously disappointed with Markus Söder.
By Sylvie-Sophie Schindler
So, you called him, angry, and said shut up, Markus? Sandra Maischberger imagines that it could have been that way. But it wasn’t quite like that. Because: Armin Laschet prefers things to be moderate. No anger, no “flap” over the “disruptive fire from Munich” during the election campaign. But: “I said, Markus, leave it, Markus, why do you say that.” And Markus, the Söder Markus, fended off, no, that is wrongly quoted, I did not say it that way. Laschet: “It was always different.”
You can tell that the CDU man is above all disappointed with his CSU colleague. Because: “I really believed him a lot.” Söder said for a long time that the CDU had the first right to propose. “That’s why I was surprised at first that he even ran because he had said the opposite for a year.” The end of an illusion. You didn’t become Chancellor either, and now, Herr Laschet? Are you at peace with yourself? “I would have liked to have won and would have preferred to become Chancellor and would rather not sit in this chair, but rather in coalition negotiations for a Jamaica.”
There is no end to laughter
Wednesday evening. “Maischberger. The week.” Armin Laschet gives his first detailed TV interview after the historic CDU election defeat in September. Without a cell phone. The fact that he can hold his cell phone to his ear without touching it, how does he actually do it, what is his secret, his trick? Armin Copperfield, explain! But it only weighs down. He doesn’t understand the interest. And that newspapers give this topic so much space in the first place. He asked himself, “what’s the matter with German journalism?” One would also have to ask what is actually going on with Sandra Maischberger, what is the point, months after Laschet has apologized to almost everyone in Germany for his laughter in the flood disaster area, to grind him again? We have known for a long time that he is sorry, very much indeed, he says again this time that it annoys him to death to this day. But now, you think, while you watch like that, it has to be good.
Doesn’t find Maischberger. As if she were a representative of the Last Judgment, she warns: “You have to be in control.” And shows him, the hopefully repentant sinner, umpteen other of his missteps. Photos are faded in. Look, Mr Laschet, you are giving a press conference in the flood area, in front of a heap of rubbish. Ms. Maischberger, this is not a rubbish heap, it is the rubble of a city. And there, in the other picture? Laschet with rain-stuck hair and face. “I look like a desolate person, but Olaf Scholz, he’s only a meter away, he doesn’t seem more hopeful in the rain,” said Laschet. Speaking of photo. “Please take the Söder off the screen, we’ll do the Söder right away,” says Maischberger at some point and points to her team, who must have faded in the Söder face too early.
Everything done right in terms of content
Later it is faded in, Söder’s face. “He would have had just as tough an election campaign,” says Laschet with certainty. He doesn’t believe that anyone else would have been “the superstar” and would have won. Maischberger: “Do you think you were the right candidate?” Laschet: “Yes.” In terms of content, he did everything right. “And I would do it again “Maischberger:” You think that you had the support of the party? “Laschet:” Yes. “He represented the will of the majority of the CDU.
Now discussion about numbers, surveys with which Maischberger wants to refute that Laschet is right. Finally, she says generously that she wants to let him believe in him. Then it goes back to troubleshooting. Maischberger: “Why did you lose?” Laschet: “There are many reasons, there are many mistakes; the candidate made mistakes, there was a lack of unity.” What the moderator ignores: To blame the mistakes as far as possible on all Laschet falls far too short. She also lets Laschet get away with vague platitudes when it matters. Among other things, an analysis of the fundamental party profile would have been illuminating. Keyword: “Left slide” – through 16 years of Merkel.
Laschet to the traffic light: “Too banal to be on the left”
Review. With 24.1 percent, the Union achieved the worst result in the history of its party in the 2021 federal election. The SPD was in first place with 25.7 percent. Nevertheless, Laschet did not want to admit his defeat for a long time. What was it? Maischberger: “Denial of reality, too much adrenaline or who knows what else?” What else? What does she mean? Laschet undeterred: “The second can also appoint the Chancellor.” Greens and liberals have signaled their interest. “I wanted to be ready to talk.” Who knows if we couldn’t have moved more with Jamaica. Maischberger: “Jamaica is dead now.” Laschet: “I’m afraid so.”
Maischberger: “Is Scholz a good Federal Chancellor?” Laschet: “The pictures from Rome are good for Germany.” Maischberger quotes Ralph Brinkhaus: “He said the tightest left-wing agenda awaits us – do we have to be afraid of the traffic lights?” Laschet called Brinkhaus’ remark “clumsy”: “I don’t agree.” You don’t have to be afraid because the traffic light coalition won’t move anything. In addition: “The paper is rather too banal than it would be on the left.” And: “Large parts of us could also write it down.” It is as banal as that. Is it clear to him where he verbally slipped into it again?
The pain of the lost national paternity
And how does it go on? The CDU is looking for a new chairman. Who will it be Maischberger hangs in to elicit a name from Laschet. But he lets them run up. On the grounds that he could not even say who could stand up as a candidate. And you, where are you going, Mr. Laschet? Maischberger: “You are now a simple MP.” Laschet admits that he is sad. The loss of the prime ministerial office hurts him more than the loss of the party chairmanship. Because: “That is a really nice office because you are the head of government of a large country, but you are also the country’s representative.” Maischberger: “Country Father.” Laschet: “Yes, father of the country.”
Maischberger: “You seem more liberated than in the election campaign.” Laschet: “You say that, I don’t think so.” Yes, yes, affirms Maischberger. Laschet remembers scenes from the election campaign: “People said to me that you are completely different.” Is it completely different? Who knows. That evening, during this interview, he looked basically the same as always. Maybe just a little more melancholy than usual.
Source From: Stern
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