ARD election arena with Armin Laschet: “We need everyone’s potential”


ARD election arena with Armin Laschet
“We need the potential of every human being”

By Marko Schlichting

In the penultimate individual interview of the public broadcaster with the candidate for chancellor, Armin Laschet was a guest on the ARD on Wednesday evening. The viewers of the show could experience a surprise. Because the Union candidate showed himself from a very human side.

What happened to Armin Laschet? This is a question that many observers of the election arena asked themselves on Wednesday evening. The Union’s candidate for chancellor answered questions from viewers on the show. The audience in Lübeck consisted of 62 guests who sometimes followed up very critically. If Laschet was sometimes gruff and rather bad-tempered in the last two trials and in the survey last Thursday on ZDF, he showed himself in the first from a completely different side.

Laschet was calm even when a spectator accused him of having obtained many of his successes through the help of his wife and his comrades in a student fraternity. He often talked to the questioners, listened, was interested in their problems, and even offered help here and there. The audience at the ARD election arena reacted accordingly: In none of the previous election broadcasts on ARD and ZDF has a candidate received so much applause from the scene. This should also be related to the fact that Laschet had prepared much better than, for example, at ZDF last Thursday.

“My government saved the Hambach Forest”

An important topic of the program: climate change. A 15-year-old Fridays for Future activist asked what Laschet wanted to change in this area in the first hundred days of his government. First of all, he explains what successes he has already been responsible for in North Rhine-Westphalia, where he is Prime Minister. There is the acceleration of the coal phase-out and the protection of the Hambach Forest. Opinions can certainly be divided about Laschet’s claim that his government saved the Hambach Forest. Then Laschet points out the imminent shutdown of the first power plants. “You will now say: This is going far too slowly. But at least it is coming.” The major tasks of a government led by Laschet: changing the form of energy, expanding renewable electricity, converting industry, saving jobs. “If we can do that, we’ll have achieved a lot,” said Laschet. The most important thing, however, is to implement faster planning and approval procedures, both for the expansion of railway lines and for power lines. “We have to do more across party lines to get that done,” Laschet demands.

Then a guest from the Ahr valley reports. He explains that there has still not been any financial aid for future construction work. The money will now flow, says Laschet. The Federal Council approved a reconstruction fund of 30 billion euros on Friday. Laschet’s promise: “As Federal Chancellor, I want to continue with the task of ensuring that every house, every village, everything that has been destroyed is rebuilt. The promise is made.” At the same time, Laschet is promoting the fact that craftsmen from all over Germany help build houses in the floodplains. “This is a task of the century, and we have to work together to achieve it.”

The most emotional moment of the show

Laschet gets the first applause for a conversation with an elderly lady. She describes that she has been unemployed for six years and has completed various retraining and further training courses. She is now receiving further training in the area of ​​personnel management. After a short conversation with the viewer, Laschet sums up: “It is wrong to say that the unemployed generally do not want to work.” It is also wrong not to employ older people. “We have to bring people who are older back to work,” he says – and spontaneously offers the viewer his help. That brings him the first applause of the evening.

“Use potential”

But Laschet has more plans, he says. He wants to raise the income limit for mini jobs from 450 to 550 euros. He wants to have more apartments built and he wants to work for people with disabilities. “We need the potential of every person if we want to have a good future as a country, and that includes people with a handicap.”

At the end of the show, many viewers should have left a comparatively positive impression. Laschet is often mockingly referred to as the “Carnival Prince”. In fact, on this show, he sometimes forgot to be brief. The audience in the electoral arena seemed to have liked his appearance that evening. And maybe he even managed to collect a few sympathy points. He urgently needs it.

.