Chancellor duel on TV without Robert Habeck: Could he sue?

A horror scenario for the Greens seems to be confirmed: that they could be lost in the election campaign between the still incumbent Chancellor and the opposition leader. The public television channels ARD and ZDF have invited Olaf Scholz from the SPD and Friedrich Merz from the CDU to a duel before the federal election. Not there: Robert Habeck from the Greens. Also RTL, to which the star heard, such a duel radiates.

Will this put the Greens at a disadvantage before the election? In surveys there is only between one and five percentage points between them and the SPD. Top Greens point to the 2021 election campaign, when not only the CDU candidate and the Green candidate, who were leading in the polls, were invited, but also Scholz from the SPD, who later became Chancellor.

What now? The Greens could go to court. However, experts see different chances of success. For the legal scholar Hubertus Gersdorf from the University of Leipzig it is clear: “Not only Olaf Scholz and Friedrich Merz have to be invited, but of course Mr. Habeck too.” The reason: Habeck and Scholz would have similarly good – or small – chances of becoming chancellor. He sees “good prospects” for such a lawsuit for Habeck.

Things are different for AfD candidate Alice Weidel, who has already announced that she will consider legal action. Because she has no chance of becoming chancellor, it might be permissible not to invite her. The other parties have ruled out coalitions with the AfD.

Madeline Trappmann, a legal scholar at the University of Cologne, considers the success of a lawsuit in Habeck’s case to be “low.” She refers to the year 2002, when the FDP failed with a similar lawsuit, even though it got at least eight to 10 percent in the polls at the time. There are various criteria when deciding who is invited: “The survey results, but also the length of time in existence, government responsibility, representation in parliaments and so on.” She is determined: “If you use these criteria, the SPD is certainly ahead of the Greens – even if the survey results are still volatile.”

However, expert Gersdorf sees a completely different pitfall – whether such a chancellor duel is even permissible as a format: After all, there is only one candidate for chancellor with a realistic chance of winning the office, and his name is Friedrich Merz. The entire concept must be checked for plausibility. “I don’t think the chancellor duel in court can stand up to such scrutiny.” In order to be legally secure, the concept of the programs must be changed “to a larger format to which candidates from all major parties are invited – including Ms Weidel”.

Trappmann sees it differently. The fact that the broadcasters have now decided on the concept of letting the Chancellor compete against the strongest challenger is not “in principle inadmissible.” But you can never know for sure what will happen in court.

It is still uncertain whether the Chancellor’s duel will become a Triell or even an even larger round. Only one thing is clear: the public broadcaster’s original idea of ​​organizing two different duels – Merz against Scholz, Habeck against Weidel – failed: Robert Habeck canceled.