As of: January 22, 2024, 3:27 a.m
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Caren Miosga welcomes well-known guests to the first panel discussion named after her – a somewhat bumpy start.
Hamburg – After nine years of Sabine Christiansen and a whopping 16 years of Anne Will, Caren Miosga, a former Tagesthemen presenter, is once again moving to the most prestigious and high-rating slot for a political talk show.
It remains to be seen whether Miosga, who once switched from culture to politics, will be able to set new accents in the often monotonous format of political talk.
After criticism from the ranks of the GVK, the committee chairmen's conference, the highest control body of the ARD, about the all too similar talk formats, in which the same topics are too often discussed with the same guests, the ARD is likely to try in the next few months to combine the three talk formats “Hart, but Fair”, “Maischberger” and “Caren Miosga” must be differentiated more clearly from each other.
At her debut on Sunday evening, Miosga made a start: Friedrich Merz was the first guest in the studio.
Friedrich Merz with Caren Miosga: General helplessness
The CDU chairman even appeared in the official title of the program: “Merz is realigning the CDU.
Will Germany's future become conservative?" Miosga asked her guest and began the demonstrations, in which hundreds of thousands took to the streets, not only this Sunday, to take a stand against the strengthening of the AFD.
TV talk “Caren Miosga” on January 21, 2024 on Erste.
© Screenshot ARD
Merz has also put up a firewall against them, at least verbally.
Friedrich Merz didn't find an answer to Caren Miosga's answer to how one can make politics against the right-wing populists and how one can soon win elections against them.
Merz did not want to describe the AFD as a Nazi party, but warned against such statements: “This Nazi club won’t get us anywhere.”
Conversation with Merz babbles along
The one-on-one conversation between Miosga and Merz was a bit erratic; the moderator wanted to tick off too many topics in an overly planned order of conversation.
From the question about the chances of nuclear power, which has actually long been clarified, to the CDU's new election program, to the question of what conservative actually means.
A little bit of everything, one could understand Merz, liberal in terms of economic policy, conservative in terms of values, but always CDU.
Miosga was obviously not too keen to probe Merz about such banalities.
The conversation babbled along, Miosga meticulously stuck to the sequence of questions that she and her editorial team had worked out. The question about Friedrich Merz's possible candidacy for chancellor also had to come naturally and just as naturally remained unanswered.
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A strange symbol was permanently displayed at the bottom of the screen during the broadcast: a circle next to a square, the somewhat enigmatic logo of the broadcast.
What does ARD want to tell us?
Perhaps a reference to an attempt to gather edgy thinkers around a round table.
Hähnig and Nassehi bring some momentum
After a film, Caren Miosga soon welcomed the other two guests on her debut show: the
Zeit
journalist Anne Hähnig and the sociology professor Armin Nassehi.
Hähnig travels a lot in the East, especially in the federal states where elections will be held in the fall, and commented on the party's electoral chances.
According to Hähnig, the AFD is no longer being elected out of mere protest; on the contrary, voting for the AFD has become a conscious political decision.
But how can the democratic parties counteract this?
“You cannot weaken this party by simply adopting its stance,” emphasized Hähning.
Simply claiming that we are now really taking tougher action against migration, deporting people more quickly or other phrases that are regularly used by Merz and Scholz do not help, on the contrary.
Because the belief that these so-called “old parties” would actually implement this policy is very low.
And when in doubt, it's better to choose the original than the fake.
Freidrich Merz indulges in excuses
There will also be elections in Thuringia in September, and there is a particular danger there given the constitution: in a possible third round, a candidate could be elected with a simple majority.
This means that if the CDU and the Left do not agree on a common candidate, Björn Höcke could be elected Prime Minister with the 33/34% that the AFD currently has, according to surveys.
Strangely or almost negligently, Merz didn't really seem to notice this very threatening scenario and resorted to excuses: They didn't want to anticipate the election result, in the end it would be up to their colleagues in Thuringia to decide anyway.
So it's not all that dramatic?
Well, in the last election in Thuringia, the AFD managed to take the other parties by surprise, but this time the consequences could be even more dramatic.
One would have liked a little more Markus Lanz from Miosga in these moments, a little harder questioning and not always letting Merz get away with phrases and formulaic answers.
Caren Miosga in the first |
The guests of the broadcast from January 21, 2024 |
Friedrich Merz |
CDU boss |
Anne Hähnig |
journalist |
Armin Nassehi |
Sociology professor |
Caren Miosga's show had an old, new special feature: an audience.
Where Markus Lanz and Anne Will forewent an audience during Corona for distance reasons and stayed there afterwards, at Miosga viewers listened to the discussion, in silence for a long time and, as cuts show the audience, often a bit lethargic.
It was only towards the end that the audience woke up a bit and applauded sharp comments from Hähnig or Nassehi, who criticized Merz for his populist sayings like “little Pashas”.
Caren Miosga has to act more unconventionally
Nassehi explained that Merz was initially right when he pointed out the problems with migration, but his tone was often wrong and he resorted to questionable phrases all too quickly.
The country's diverse problems cannot be solved in this way, which, according to Hähnig, has other reasons: "We have an enforcement problem in politics." There is a lot of talk, promises, and special funds set up, but then not implemented.
Were the GVK folks happy with this first panel moderated by Caren Miosga?
Reinventing the format is unlikely to be possible; the shape of the table can be changed, the color of the chairs, the number of guests.
Topics, however, are dictated by daily politics, at least if you want to reflect the headlines.
It would of course be possible to put other topics on the agenda, but this would require a show, its editorial team and presenter to think more unconventionally.
(Michael Meyns)