CDU candidate Mario Voigt and AfD right winger Björn Höcke took part in a television duel on Thursday evening. The topics continued: business location and taxes, migration, the culture of remembrance of Germany's Nazi past through to Russia's war against Ukraine.
Both accused each other of harming Germany and the German economy. The CDU politician said that HöCke wanted the European Union to die and that “would be a catastrophe for Germany’. The AfD man countered thatVoigt was “radically populist and did not understand his arguments”. The duel refutes “all those who had warned against offering Hö cke this podium and making him so socially acceptable,” said political scientist and journalist Albrecht von Lucke of the German Press Agency. The reason for the TV duel was a dispute about European politics - and that is how the program began, which was moderated by Welt journalists Tatjana Ohm and Jan Philipp Burgard.