Friday 17th September 2021
Blome & Augstein on forecasts
“Laschet is calculated down in surveys”
In the new episode “Oncoming Traffic”, Blome chauffeurs his colleague Augstein to the Reichstag building. In the hot phase before the election, they discuss the sense and nonsense of surveys – and with them the question of what’s up with the latest trends.
Jakob Augstein is annoyed by the new polls for the federal election every day. When he gets into Nikolaus Blome’s car, he has a glass ball with him; it is immediately clear what Augstein thinks of voter surveys. The publicist believes that online media in particular are now looking at surveys like the “golden calf”. RTL / ntv news chief Blome holds the wheel on the drive to the Reichstag building – and in terms of content against it.
Blome finds the “Echo Room” extremely exciting: Where is the election campaign going, who is advancing, who is in retreat? “It’s good for people, so that they know what’s going on, so that they can get an idea.” In his opinion, the results of the polls are particularly important for this election campaign, which he is convinced will end with a three-man constellation in the government. That is why the polls are important for those who want to vote tactically. For example, does the CDU still have the chance to take first place or should middle-class voters rather make their cross directly with the FDP so that their interests are represented in the future?
Augstein, however, doubts the survey results. Union candidate Armin Laschet is being “written down” by the media and “calculated down” by the opinion research institutes. In his opinion, interviewing voters should be banned two weeks before the election. Because he sees a risk of manipulation for the election result. Now some may even feel ashamed to say that they want to vote for Laschet. Blome, on the other hand, considers this theory to be a “wet dream” of his “left-wing colleague” that there is a spiral of silence around Laschet.
Instead of following Blome’s suggestion to ask the citizens in front of the Bundestag himself, Augstein consults the crystal ball at the end: “Baerbock, Laschet or Scholz – in the end you do it as you want it.”
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