Three aha experiences of the elephant round on ARD and ZDF

A plus point: The larger group gave the debate a little more drama than the previously rather quiet trialles. And topics came up that had previously played a minor role in the election campaign: rents, finances, China and Germany’s role in the world, for example.

It is the final spurt in the federal election campaign: Seven politicians – who came up with the best ideas?

The most exciting debate

It became heated for the first time after 20 minutes when it came to housing construction, the fight against rising rents, especially in large cities – and the question of the expropriation of large housing construction companies.

Unlike Scholz, Baerbock failed to make it clear that the Greens are against expropriation. Baerbock spoke of the “last resort”, but kept this last resort open. Her conclusion: You don’t have to choose the extreme if you haven’t taken other steps before.

SPD top candidate Scholz clearly opposed expropriating housing companies in his statement. “It costs a lot of money,” he said. “We should rather build new apartments.” Scholz stated that the goal was to build 400,000 new apartments per year, which would be necessary over many years. A moratorium is intended to limit the rise in rents.

“We need a large alliance for housing,” said Scholz, recalling his time as first mayor in Hamburg. He also succeeded there. The current Vice Chancellor could not be stopped at all. With stoic calm he added, “That has to be said.”

CDU boss Laschet said, “we have to build, build, build, that will ease the situation on the housing market.” 1.5 million new apartments are required by 2025, including many social housing. Since cities have become magnets, it is important to keep life in rural areas attractive.

Green leader Baerbock accused the federal government of failures. It is important to increase funds for social housing and to ensure in cities with tight markets that rents are not increased arbitrarily.

Left chairwoman Wissler called for a nationwide rent cap. Building more is not enough as an answer, one cannot seal the last surface either. She made it clear that the Basic Law also allows expropriations in the interests of the common good. She doesn’t understand the excitement, she said. In North Rhine-Westphalia they are also expropriated – for example for the mining of coal.

There was one person who didn’t like not having been asked for his opinion on this topic: FDP boss Lindner. “That’s stupid,” he grumbled.

Foreign policy took up a larger area than in the three TV debates of the Chancellor candidates before. A “strong European Union is needed because otherwise we don’t play a role,” said Scholz. Söder accused the SPD of preventing the Bundeswehr from being equipped with armed drones. 40 other countries in the world had these drones long ago, he said.

FDP leader Lindner and Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock criticized the EU investment agreement with China. Lindner, on the other hand, spoke out in favor of more free trade agreements with other regions of the world. He called for the new federal government to be more committed to transatlantic relations. To this end, he suggested organizing regular government consultations with the USA in the future. The federal government maintains such formats with France, Israel and China, so why not also with the USA.

The debate about the debt brake brought little news. Laschet, Söder and Lindner refused to loosen the debt brake. “I don’t want a tax increase, I want to keep the debt brake,” said Laschet. Söder warned against a debt union in Europe. Baerbock advocated adding an investment rule to the debt brake.

The best candidate

Ironically, the one who ultimately lost out in the dispute between the CDU and CSU over the Union’s candidacy for chancellor was convincing: the CSU boss. Söder was aggressive and knew how to give answers to questions that he had not been asked before.

With regard to the topic of finances, the CSU boss said: “What cannot happen is a general redistribution, which, as with Gerhard Schröder, leads to five million unemployed. Lots of ideas, lots of experiments, in the end the country was on the verge of ruin. “

Söder also praised Chancellor Angela Merkel and her foreign policy. You have “well protected” the country, said Söder. When asked what his personal contribution to climate protection was, he said that he was reducing his meat consumption “although that is not easy for a Bavarian”.

More about the federal election:

Olaf Scholz was statesmanlike. Calmly, almost stoically, he repeated his positions. “Anyone who wants me to become Chancellor should vote for the SPD with the second vote,” he said at the end. Baerbock was less aggressive than at the last Triell with Laschet and Scholz and promoted strong greens. A leadership without the Greens is like a climate without protection, “that doesn’t work,” she said.

The most important finding

Who with whom – the audience is at least a little closer to this question after this evening. The “final round” provided a better foretaste of the possible coalitions than previous TV debates.

While the top candidates of the larger and smaller parties have so far mostly passed the balls via interviews in the remote duel, here they sat opposite each other in a semicircle, made advances, threw angry looks or poisonous words at each other.

Before the election, wild color games of all parties in the group – with the exception of the AfD – are conceivable: A traffic light alliance for example from the SPD, Greens and FDP, red-green-red, Jamaica from Union, Greens and FDP and – that is too one option – the grand coalition with the support of the FDP, if necessary.

At least FDP boss Lindner made it clear which coalition he prefers. When asked about it, the possible kingmaker said without hesitation: “Jamaica”. A rebuff to Scholz, who also courted the Liberals that evening, Lindner agreed several times and said so, for example when the FDP called for more private investments.

How it should work with the Greens, however, was not clear in the round. When Baerbock presented her climate concept, Lindner whispered “Oh God, oh God” in between. “We don’t have to plan everything centrally, as Ms. Baerbock suggests,” he said. Instead, it needs technology openness.

With Söder, there was a second advocate for Jamaica in the “final round”, who hardly missed an opportunity to deal against Baerbock. He accused her of having a “somewhat immature attitude towards the world”, once said in her direction: “Talking in between doesn’t make it any more correct” and railed against the red-red-green housing policy in Berlin.

Scholz did not form as clearly as the Union – but he also has more power options than Laschet. “Maybe there is also a couple,” he said at the end. While the left-wing candidate spoke out in favor of red-red-green, Scholz repeated his conditions for such a coalition, which he had already mentioned elsewhere: “A strong constitutional protection, a NATO and a Bundeswehr that will continue to be equipped – all that belongs to things that belong, ”he said.

The fact that Wissler called for the exact opposite on all these points in the 90 minutes before gives an idea of ​​what Germany is facing in the coming weeks: Tough exploratory talks and coalition negotiations.

More: You can find the latest news on our election blog