Habeck refuses TV duel with Weidel – rejection to ARD and ZDF

According to his campaign spokesman, the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor, Robert Habeck, does not want to take part in a TV duel with AfD chancellor candidate Alice Weidel. “We had clearly ruled out such a duel in advance and also announced that we would not accept an invitation,” the spokesman told the editorial network Germany (RND).

ARD and ZDF still issued an invitation and then created facts with a press release. “Why this had to be announced two months before the election is incomprehensible. In doing so, ARD and ZDF are intervening in an extremely short, intensive and, above all, open election campaign,” said the spokesman.

ARD and ZDF want to pit Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Union candidate Friedrich Merz (CDU) against each other in a duel on February 9th. In addition, another duel is planned jointly by ARD and ZDF, for which Habeck and Weidel have been asked, the public broadcaster announced. RTL invited Scholz and Merz to an exchange of blows on February 16th and says it wants to talk to the top candidates of the other parties about further duel combinations.

Habeck’s campaign spokesman called on ARD and ZDF to reconsider their plans. The poll numbers for Habeck are so good that no one can predict what the result will be on election day. “As a reminder: At the same time before the 2021 election, the SPD was far behind in the polls – and yet ARD and ZDF were planning a triad from the start.”

AfD leader Alice Weidel has also criticized the television stations’ plans. A spokesman for Weidel told the “Bild”: “We will legally examine whether the AfD, as a party with the currently second-best poll numbers, should disappear again into ant circles.”