With a slight lead in the polls of the SPD, the parties go into the federal election this Sunday. In view of a large number of still undecided voters, however, their outcome is considered to be absolutely open.
In the election campaign, the top SPD candidate, Scholz, managed to overtake the Union and the Greens with the Social Democrats, who remained at 15 to 16 percent until July. He also benefited from mistakes made by his competitors Armin Laschet and Annalena Baerbock.
The Greens chairman had to contend with allegations of plagiarism in a book and inconsistencies in her published résumé. The CDU leader lost approval after unfortunate appearances during the flood disaster in North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition, there was previously the long dispute with CSU boss Markus Söder over the Union’s candidacy for chancellor.
This is mainly expressed in the personal approval ratings of the three candidates for chancellor. In the ZDF “Politbarometer” on Thursday evening, 64 percent trusted Scholz to take over the Chancellery. 26 percent opted for Laschet and 25 percent for Baerbock.
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According to the opinion polls, there are many indications that a tripartite alliance will rule in the future. According to the “Politbarometer” figures, as a two-party alliance, only a coalition of the SPD and CDU / CSU would have a narrow majority. It would also be enough for a coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP (Germany coalition), the Union, the Greens and the FDP (Jamaica coalition) as well as for red-green-red.
The Handelsblatt has held talks with the Chancellor candidates Olaf Scholz (SPD), Armin Laschet (CDU) and Annalena Baerbock (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen) in recent weeks. Christian Lindner (FDP) was also interviewed. The behavior of his party could be decisive in the search for a governing coalition.
In an interview with Handelsblatt, Olaf Scholz promises the German economy reliable framework conditions: “You can invest, you can expand capacities – without taking the risk that everything will be different again in a few years.”
While the Green candidate Annalena Baerbock had stated that the market did not care about people, the Federal Minister of Finance said: “The market is highly efficient and it is the basis for our prosperity.” He was confident that he would join a traffic light coalition after the election to be able to join the FDP: “I am an experienced negotiator.”
As if he wanted to wipe away business concerns about an alliance with the Left Party, he promised that with him as Chancellor, neither the debt brake nor the stability rules of the EU would be shaken. He does not take the Union’s immediate program seriously: “A lot of small and small things at high costs. None of this is financed. “
Armin Laschet was combative in the interview. The Union candidate for chancellor ironed out the question of his personal contribution to the weak poll numbers with the sentence: “If as much is written about my contribution to victory on September 27th, I’ll be happy.”
To make this work, his plan for Germany provides for a tax reform after the federal election. “We need a tax reform in which the idea of ecological restructuring can be found,” said the CDU chairman during a conversation in the Düsseldorf State Chancellery. The Union stands for a decade of modernization.
New mechanisms are needed for this, Laschet told Handelsblatt. Among other things, he wants to promote the restructuring of industry with tax incentives and “make investments in air conditioning technology more deductible”.
With regard to foreign trade policy, Laschet warns of a confrontation with China: “A new cold war would do us great harm.” At the same time, China is in system competition with Europe, violates human rights and is not a democracy. “We must and will always criticize that.” Europe must face competition.
Polls put the Greens in third place, after the SPD and Union. In the race for the chancellery they no longer seem to play along. In the interview, Annalena Baerbock was combative: “We want to convince many of the undecided voters. Maybe in the end it will even be enough for a two-party alliance between green and red. “
A week before the federal elections, Baerbock rejected a black-green alliance: “I think it would be right if the Union went into the opposition,” said Baerbock. “The Union stands for a standstill in our country and is without leadership and planning.”
She defended her statement that bans are a driver of innovation. “A market is a driver for innovation, for efficiency, for new dynamics,” said Baerbock. But it is not an end in itself. “It should serve people and so that it can do that, clear guard rails are required, social, but also ecological.”
Baerbock again spoke out in favor of a CO2 border adjustment – and in case of doubt wants to enforce it against China. “If you want a sovereign, strong Europe, you shouldn’t give in just because people are coughing in China,” said the Green politician. “We are the largest single market in the world. We can say which products will come onto our market. “
Christian Lindner’s personal prospects are currently quite positive after the federal election in less than a week. He is aiming for a government coalition and would like to take over the office of Federal Minister of Finance. The Handelsblatt met Lindner just a few days before the last party congress before the federal election and talked to him about his financial plans and possible coalition options.
In doing so, he criticized the financial policy ideas of the Greens and the SPD, which sought to further communitise finances in Europe. “As a consequence, employees in Germany would pay for the consequences of wrong economic policies elsewhere,” says Lindner.
Instead, the FDP chairman drafts his idea of a state that is based on the model of a company and has a full overview of its finances – including depreciation, for example on infrastructure and future payment obligations. In this way, financial statements could more easily be subjected to a “plausibility check”.
Lindner doesn’t see that Germany could catch up with the big tech companies in Silicon Valley: “I don’t believe in a German Amazon,” says Lindner. Instead, he suggests that Germany should draw on its strengths in mechanical engineering or chemistry, for example, in order to turn German engineering into an export success.
With agency material.
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