TV and elections: four round with Scholz, Merz, Weidel and Habeck at RTL

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Union Chancellor Friedrich Merz now meet the Chancellor candidates Alice Weidel (AfD) and Robert Habeck (Greens) in a direct exchange of blows on TV. RTL thus moves away from the original plan of a TV duel between Merz and Scholz and extends the round on February 16, as the private broadcaster announced.

RTL calls the shipment “Quadrell”. News presenter Pinar Atalay and moderator Günther Jauch (“Who is getting a millionaire?”) Sign the exchange of blows, which is shown a week before the Bundestag election at 8:15 p.m. The four candidates for chancellor were selected, whose parties are currently the most strongest according to surveys. The Union is currently ranked 1st place, before AfD and followed by the SPD and the Greens.

Before the “Quadrell”, Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), Christian Lindner (FDP) and Gregor Gysi (Die Linke) will have their say from 7 p.m., as RTL continued.

A lot of criticism of the format TV duel

For weeks there has also been criticism of the format of two opponents from political camps. The format has actually been a classic before the Bundestag election for decades. But the past time, public broadcasters and private television showed TV triangle fights (“Triell”)-at that time between Armin Laschet (CDU), Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Annalena Baerbock (Greens).

Criticism recently sparked the concept of the public service broadcaster of ARD and ZDF, which, on the other hand, defend their planning. Next Sunday (February 9) there will be a TV duel between Merz and Scholz. A second duel between Habeck and Weidel, which was to follow a day later, was deleted. The whole thing failed due to the resistance of the Greens, which Habeck wanted to see in the round with Scholz and Merz. ARD and ZDF finally canceled the second duel.

Merz switched on publicly

But not only the Greens camp spoke in favor of changes. Union politicians Merz had proposed to expand the TV duel on public television with Scholz around Robert Habeck (Greens) and Alice Weidel (AfD). Merz had said to the Medienhaus WMH, which includes the “Westfälische Nachrichten” and the “Westfalen-Blatt”: “A direct meeting with Alice Weidel on TV is my firm intention. Then it becomes clear that AfD and Union do not have anything . “

RTL then invited to a four -round round. The broadcast of the broadcaster several days ago: After the fatal knife attack in Aschaffenburg and the resulting developments, the conditions for a TV duel have changed.

Other media houses continue to stick to the TV duel format. In addition to ARD and ZDF, there is also an exchange of blows between Merz and Scholz at the news channel world TV and at “bild.de” for February 19 – a Wednesday.

Formats with several candidates

Among other things, the public broadcasters had argued that there are also other programs before the Bundestag election, in which several top candidates will be shown. For example, the four candidates of Union, SPD, AfD and Greens are guests on February 13 on the ZDF program “Plain Text” and at the ARD in an “election arena” on February 17. In “plain text”, for example, the character of the show is such that the direct dialogue of citizens is in the foreground with the candidates. The candidates primarily ask themselves the questions of the studio audience in a row.

A few days before the election – on February 20 – there will be a “final round” of all top candidates of the parties represented in the Bundestag in the Bundestag.