Bundestag election: 90 minutes TV duel between Scholz and Merz

Two weeks before the Bundestag election, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz (CDU) meet in their first of two planned TV duels. For 90 minutes, the two opponents are interviewed this Sunday from 8:15 p.m. at the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF by the talk show professionals Maybrit Illner and Sandra Maischberger.

The duel takes place a week after the scandal in the Bundestag in the migration dispute. For the first time, the Union had enforced a decision with the votes of the AfD and thus caused outrage among the government parties SPD and the Greens.

Scholz had then accused Merz break and said that he could no longer be trusted with the AfD with a view to a possible coalition. The Union rejects such allegations and emphasizes that the “fire wall” stands for the AfD.

In addition, it should also be about all other important campaign issues such as the stimulus of the cravilating economy, the tax concepts of the parties or the Ukraine war.

Merz with a big lead – Scholz has to attack

Merz goes into the duel in the polls. The Union currently comes to 29 to 34 percent, Scholz and the SPD, on the other hand, are only in third place behind the AfD at 15 to 18 percent. The scandal in the Bundestag has had little effect on the survey values. The trend reversal hoped for by the SPD failed to materialize.

Scholz now only has 14 days to catch up with the gap of 11 to 17 percentage points in the surveys. So he will have to attack. From the beginning, the SPD understood the election campaign as a duel between the Chancellor and the opposition leader. The format is just right.

Merz is in the conflict with the backing of the CDU party conference and the feeling of doing everything right. He had shown that the Union is serious about combating irregular immigration, according to his view of things. He sees the majority of the population behind him.

Perhaps the most interesting rule in this duel: no time accounts are shown. “The speaking time is based on the direction. In the case of larger imbalances in the speaking time, this is discussed by the moderators.” In addition, according to the broadcaster, there will be no final statement of the two candidates. You can only take the pen and notepad to your standing desks to the TV studio in Berlin-Adlershof.

In the next two weeks until the election on February 23, the Chancellor and top candidates will meet in numerous other television debates. There will be a novelty next Sunday (February 16): Then Scholz and Merz will have a debate with Robert Habeck (Greens) and Alice Weidel (AfD) at the private broadcasters RTL and NTV.

RTL also originally also planned a two -format with Scholz and Merz, but then waved over. According to the current status, there is only another duel between the head of government and opposition leader on television: four days before the election on February 19 at Welt-tv and “bild.de”.