The result of the European elections in Germany is a moderate earthquake. On ntv, the party leaders are debating the result. Things are getting serious quickly.
Wagenknecht and Weidel, Klingbeil in between and Nouripour next to them, Merz and Lindner on the far right – this is what the seating arrangement looked like in the evening at the elephant round on ntv. When six party leaders sit down in a television studio, something big must have happened. And that is exactly what it has: the election to the European Parliament is shaking the ground on which politics is made in Germany, but also in Europe. This is most clearly felt in France, where President Emmanuel Macron announced the dissolution of the National Assembly that evening and called for new elections.
The situation in Germany is not quite as dramatic, at least not yet. But if the traffic light coalition were a football team, it would have failed in the preliminary round of the European Championships. Instead, the AfD got 16 percent and the Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) coalition got at least 6, even if the namesake of the new party may have hoped for more. The election winners are the CDU and CSU and with them their party family across Europe, the European People’s Party. CDU leader Friedrich Merz points this out with a sour undertone when moderator and ntv political editor Nikolaus Blome wants to talk about the consequences. However, the populists on the right and left have gained the most.
Right at the start of the round, it becomes clear that the SPD and FDP in particular are adopting a now-more-than-ever attitude when it comes to the traffic light coalition. Together with the Greens, they want to prepare for a new federal budget by July 3. The number one now-more-than-ever politician is SPD leader Lars Klingbeil. He says that pension cuts are not acceptable with him. He specifically mentions the pension after 45 years of contributions, also known by the no longer correct name of pension at 63. “For me as SPD leader, it is very clear that we cannot cut those who I call the working middle class,” he says.
Once again in the middle of the traffic light dispute
But that is exactly what the FDP wants to get rid of – the pension after 45 years of contributions. Also in line with the motto “Now more than ever”, FDP leader Christian Lindner immediately counters: It is possible to invest in security, education and infrastructure, he says. What is no longer possible, however, is a “citizen’s allowance that does not provide any clear incentives to work”. He then calls for a “fairness update” so that people accept job offers again. And now they are back in the middle of the traffic light dispute.
But Lindner is not only negotiating in Berlin – the election of a new Commission President is soon to take place in Brussels and Strasbourg. He is also setting conditions for Merz: no community debt and a halt to the ban on combustion engines, he demands. He can only imagine Ursula von der Leyen being elected if the CDU sticks to its election program. Merz then says that this will happen anyway. In 2026, the ban on combustion engines will be reviewed and then it will be overturned. Then combustion engines will be built and developed in Europe again.
Lindner and Merz in general. There is no sign of their personal closeness – Merz once traveled to Lindner’s wedding in Sylt. Instead, a certain irritation breaks out. Merz starts to laugh when Lindner takes credit for his achievements in asylum policy. He made sure that asylum seekers only get their full money after 36 months. Merz sees himself as the originator of the idea. “I was badly beaten for suggesting this,” he says. “I want to finish this point and Friedrich Merz can laugh as much as he wants,” Lindner continues angrily.
Hardly any differences in migration
This is one of the three major topics of the evening, alongside Ukraine and climate change, migration. If there is talk of a shift to the right after the European elections, it is most evident here. Because it is hard to hear any major differences. AfD leader Alice Weidel says there is too much uncontrolled migration into the social systems, but Merz and Lindner also say the same. This is exactly what could turn the mood against well-integrated immigrants, including Muslims, warns Wagenknecht. Klingbeil says he is 100 percent behind deporting people to Afghanistan and Syria. Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already announced this in his government statement last week. These are unusual tones for the SPD.
In the case of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the fronts are immediately clear: On one side are Weidel and Wagenknecht. They claim that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin are possible. Nouripour, Merz, Lindner and Klingbeil all reject the idea. “One person has the power to end this war,” says the CDU leader. “And his name is Vladimir Putin. You probably know him better than any of us, Ms Wagenknecht.”
Shortly before the Russian invasion, she said that Putin would not attack Ukraine, as Nouripour accuses her of. But she claims she meant something different. More weapons would not stop the deaths, she says. Lindner warns that if Ukraine is defeated, millions more refugees will come to Germany. The country is defending the European peace order. If it is abandoned, it will also be fatal for relations with Poland and the Baltic states. They fear they will be abandoned next.
Difficult evening for the Greens
Weidel doesn’t like it at all when Blome asks her how one should negotiate with someone who has bombs dropped on hardware stores to kill women and children. It is inappropriate to demonize one side and praise the other, said the AfD leader, whose party recently received an honorable mention from Putin.
Climate change is a painful issue for Green Party leader Nouripour. Five years ago, when Fridays for Future demonstrated and Greta Thunberg became the idol of a generation, his party achieved a fabulous result of 20.5 percent. Now comes the hard landing in the reality of 2024. Nouripour is unperturbed in his belief that the issue is important. See the floods in southern Germany. Or how the USA and China invested heavily in climate-friendly technologies.
Klingbeil once again criticizes the heating law, Weidel denounces wind and solar power as “fluctuating electricity” that cannot be used to run an industrial country. Lindner says the remarkable sentence: “Mrs. Weidel is absolutely right” and means the Renewable Energy Act. Lindner also wants to abolish it. Otherwise, however, he raves about wind and solar power as “freedom energies.”
At the end, Klingbeil and Weidel clash. He says that the federal election will be very different from the European election. The fact that “the Nazis” have become stronger will alarm many. Weidel then asks whether he had just called her and her party Nazis. Klingbeil replies dryly: “Yes” and refers to rulings that have allowed this. Which the AfD leader and party supporter Björn Höcke and Maximilian Krahs describe as impertinence.
It was a lively debate. And one that shows that the air is getting thinner for the traffic light coalition.