Election campaign closure: four-round: Merz sees the SPD or Greens as a possible partner

After an argumentative four round of the Chancellor candidates from SPD, Greens, Union and AfD, all parties are now in the final sprint for the Bundestag election. Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz built in the so-called Quadrell with RTL and NTV bridges to the SPD and Greens as possible coalition partners and expressly kept both options open. “I have great doubts about the FDP,” added Merz. He again excluded cooperation with the AfD.

Merz said he was pretty sure that reasonable discussions were possible after the election. “I believe that the Social Democrats have understood that they cannot continue.

Who was at the front of the four round?

With your candidate Merz, the CDU/CSU is clearly ahead of around 30 percent in surveys a week before the Bundestag election. Chancellor Olaf Scholz with his SPD only comes up with values ​​of 14 to 16 percent. And according to a Forsa flash survey, Merz did the best for the four round with Scholz, Robert Habeck (Greens) and Alice Weidel (AfD). Of 2,004 spectators surveyed, 32 percent of Merz saw a total of 25 percent before Scholz. 18 percent each opted for Habeck and Weidel.

Habeck was most sympathetically assessed: that said 34 percent of those surveyed, at Merz there were 23, at Scholz 19 and at Weidel 17 percent. The question of who the country could best lead again won Merz with 42 percent. Behind it was Scholz with 19, Weidel with 16 and Habeck with 13 percent.

However, it also became clear in the survey that the four -round round would not have a major impact on the election outcome. 84 percent of those surveyed answered the question of whether the debate had changed their personal election decision, with “no”. Only 10 percent said “yes”.

The four -round round also provided the known points of view on topics such as migration, economy, energy and pension. Scholz and Habeck accused the Union and AfD a socially unjust tax policy that was not counter -financed. Habeck even spoke of “voodoo economy”. Merz and Weidel, on the other hand, gave Scholz and Habeck to blame for the recession in Germany. Climate protection was practically not in this round as the point of conversation.

On the subject of Ukraine War, Merz, Scholz and Habeck then agreed in the large lines: all three want to further support the country attacked by Russia and have banned the latest interference by US Vice President JDVance in the German election campaign. In both points, AfD boss Weidel was alone with her position. She was the only one to praise Vance and asked: “No more German weapons in Ukraine”.

Rarer belongs in the previous election campaign, a topic that the moderators Günther Jauch and Pinar Atalay questioned all four opponents: “Smartphone ban in schools, yes or no?” Scholz and Habeck said no. Merz, on the other hand, said that this was already tried in Schleswig-Holstein, “it seems to me to be a reasonable answer at least for primary school”. Weidel clearly advocated such a ban.

When Scholz excluded a collaboration of democratic parties with the extreme right and also mentioned the AfD and the history of National Socialism, Weidel reacted: “I find this comparison scandalously. I have the way for myself personally and for the entire party.” Merz called the AfD “a radical right -wing party, mostly right -wing extremist”. For her part, Weidel criticized “an insolent framing towards the alternative for Germany”, which she called “a free conservative party”.

The four candidates for chancellor agreed in one point: none of them want to go to the jungle camp. When asked by the moderators: “What is worse for you, opposition or jungle camp?” Niederworte Weidel: “Definitely jungle camp.” Merz also said: “Better for decades in the opposition than ten days in the jungle camp.” Habeck joined that. Scholz threw in that he had already seen the show.

And another RTL classic came into play. In the manner of “Who is getting a millionaire?” Gave moderator Jauch to the question “What percentage of officers work up to the legal age limit?” Four answer options before: A: 20%, B: 40%, C: 60%and D: 80%. Habeck decided on 60, Merz and Weidel ripped down to 40 percent, Scholz to 20. Jauch dissolved with the sentence: “Well, they would be one round, Mr. Scholz.” His answer: “This is my plan ever.”

Jauch made a small carver with the most famous beer cover in Germany. In 2003, Merz made headlines with the demand to simplify the tax return in such a way that it fits on such a lid. And exactly that cardboard with the original notes from Merz had Jauch in the studio. The moderator still said that he had to be very careful. “I have been told that I am not allowed to touch this beer lid myself because it is a museum piece.” But Zack, the misfortune had already happened: the beer cover fell on the floor. Jauch picked him up again, apparently unscathed.