It had to be a “triel”. It was first a duel. Two weeks before the German legislative elections, the televised debate between the three candidates for Angela Merkel’s succession, Sunday, September 12, was above all a face-to-face between the conservative Armin Laschet (CDU-CSU) and the social -Democrat Olaf Scholz (SPD).
Between the two, the Green Annalena Baerbock has found herself in a position that is both secondary and central: secondary because it is increasingly clear that the battle for the post of chancellor will be played out between these two competitors; central because it is the only one whose party is almost certain to participate in the next government, whether it is led by Armin Laschet or Olaf Scholz
According to the polls, it is the second which has the most chance of winning. On Sunday, it was therefore not surprising that Armin Laschet let loose his blows against him. It was not lacking: from the first minutes, the president of the CDU attacked him ball in head on two fields. First, by accusing him of not playing fair with the voters by refusing to exclude a priori any coalition with the party of the radical left Die Linke. Then, by accusing him of having been moved by the recent searches carried out at the Ministry of Finance – which Olaf Scholz has headed since 2018 – as part of an investigation targeting his service in charge of the fight against money laundering. “If my finance minister worked like you, we would have serious problems”, Armin Laschet told him.
Olaf Scholz considered the most convincing
With a phlegm contrasting with the bite of his opponent, the candidate of the SPD answered him, about Die Linke, what he had already said during the previous televised debate, on August 29: “Whoever wants to govern Germany must make it clear that he is attached to the transatlantic relationship and that he considers NATO essential to our security. ” A roundabout way of saying that he can’t imagine making an alliance with Die Linke.
On the second point, Mr. Scholz accused his rival of being ” dishonest “ by suggesting that the investigation targeting one of the departments of his ministry proves his lack of determination in the fight against money laundering. Mr. Laschet did not disassemble, trying to find him at fault on another case, the scandal of the bankruptcy of the online payment company Wirecard, which highlighted the failures of the German system of control of the financial markets .
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