German elections, D – 27: in difficulty, the conservative Armin Laschet goes on the offensive – lemonde.fr

With the approach of the German legislative elections of September 26, The world keeps the campaign log. A daily update, with campaign facts, images, polls, clips, slogans, figures and keywords that allow you to follow and experience this electoral competition at the end of which Angela Merkel will leave power , after sixteen years in the chancellery.

In free fall in the polls, the conservative Armin Laschet (CDU-CSU) had to turn the tide. In the position of favorite, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz (SPD) had to avoid mistakes. As an outsider, Annalena Baerbock had to mark her difference. One month before the legislative elections of September 26, such were the stakes of the first televised debate between the three main candidates for Angela Merkel’s succession, Sunday, August 29, on RTL.

Of the three, Armin Laschet was the most combative. Striving to destroy his image as an indecisive man, he has launched the offensive several times. Effectively when he noted the ambiguities of the Greens and the SPD on defense issues. With some audacity when he called the withdrawal of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces from Afghanistan “Greatest disaster of the West and the federal government”, seeming to forget that it has been led for sixteen years by its own party.

Mr. Scholz, on the other hand, did not have to force his nature. Appreciated for his calm and his sobriety, the current Minister of Finance did not launch any blow at his adversaries, being satisfied to answer those which were addressed to him in the most monotonous tone possible. “I want a society of respect”, declared the candidate of the SPD, which relies more on the defense of its record in the government than on the formulation of big promises. For example, by not hesitating to say that, if he becomes chancellor, there will be no tax cuts, unlike Mr. Laschet, who clearly posed as a candidate for companies.

For Annalena Baerbock, the exercise was in a way easier. President of a political formation which has been in the opposition for sixteen years, the candidate for the Greens had no trouble sending back to back her two adversaries, whose parties govern together under the aegis of Mr.^me Merkel, summing up the issue of the ballot as follows: “Wait and dodge when in doubt, or create the conditions for a new start.” “

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