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Laschet, Baerbock, Scholz: Debate on a big stage.
Photo: - / dpa
In the end - of course - everyone won: Annalena Baerbock, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz invited their supporters to a VIP tent, a stone's throw from the studio in Berlin-Adlershof, where they are on RTL and n-tv in the first big one TV-Triell met.
And there every group celebrates its own candidate.
That is part of the game after 110 minutes in front of the cameras, but it says nothing about the real winner.
Does it even exist on this evening?
Green Chancellor candidate Baerbock and her Union and SPD competitors, Laschet and Scholz, discussed Afghanistan, Corona, the climate, social policy, internal security and the inequality between East and West for almost two hours.
At the end, each of them was allowed to send a one-minute application declaration to the audience.
What then sticks: Scholz, whose personal values are now far ahead of those of the others and whose party has meanwhile ousted the Union to second place in some polls, appeared the most cautious - as if he believed he could rest on his lead.
But is that enough?
The Greens applicant and the Union candidate, in turn, had to make up ground in the first triell and were accordingly more aggressive.
She left Scholz behind, one can say that much, at least not that evening.
Who did how? What were the central issues - and where did the opponent and the opponent particularly clash?
The central messages
At the beginning, Armin Laschet almost gives the opposition politician on foreign policy issues, points out that it has long been clear that the USA will withdraw from Afghanistan, speaks of a "disaster" for the West as a whole, but also for the German government - which is definitely harsh criticism is to be understood by the CDU Chancellor.
The other central messages are then completely on the party line.
In terms of content, he is particularly demanding not to raise taxes.
That harms the economy and even brings less income.
Laschet calls for more video surveillance and accuses the other two of wanting to form a coalition with the left, Scholz in particular gets it off at this point.
In his one-minute final statement, Laschet manages without a single reference to the content.
"The wind of change is blowing in everyone's face," his offer read: "Stability and reliability in difficult times."
Annalena Baerbock's message is once again based on the departure: The choice is the Groko's continued-like this, she says in the final statement and points to the other two, or change that the Greens stand for.
Only her party is serious about climate protection, she repeats this message in different variations.
She keeps coming back to the children - a recurring motif in her election campaign.
The programmatic sentence: daycare centers should become the most beautiful places.
Olaf Scholz says goodbye to the audience with the promise that he will »serve you« - experience of government and trustworthiness as the central message.
In his short lecture he highlighted two topics: wages and pensions on the one hand and climate protection on the other.
In the debate about climate policy, however, Scholz reacts to the accusation that politics does not go far enough by referring to "250 years of industrial history".
Measured against this, the plan to switch to renewable energies is very far-reaching.
Departure and on-going, he wants to be both.
All three avoid predicting when the corona pandemic will be over.
Laschet and Scholz categorically rule out a new lockdown, Baerbock currently too.
She repeatedly emphasizes the importance of vaccinations and does not rule out compulsory vaccination for certain groups in the future, unlike the two competitors.
The most violent exchange of blows
Above all, Baerbock and Laschet clash again and again in the Triell - but the most violent exchange of blows is afforded right at the beginning of the discussion by the CDU chief and the SPD candidate: Laschet immediately finds sharp words on the subject of Afghanistan.
When he speaks of the "disaster of the West and the federal government", he naturally meant Vice Chancellor Scholz.
But then the Union candidate adds, attacks the SPD finance minister and his party directly.
The Social Democrats had stopped the procurement of armed drones, which the Bundeswehr urgently needed for operations such as in Afghanistan, says Laschet - and "unfortunately you didn't pass on the documents either, Mr. Scholz."
When the latter referred to a decision in favor of Franco-German drones, Laschet said: "Mr. Scholz, you mustn't deceive the German public now." The Vice Chancellor's reaction: It was "factually wrong" what Laschet was claiming.
The biggest surprise
In order to become Chancellor, Annalena Baerbock has to distance herself from SPD candidate Scholz, according to the current survey status.
So it is all the more surprising that the Greens applicant is mainly working on Union candidate Laschet that evening.
Again and again she attacks the CDU boss standing to her right, whether on Corona, climate policy or tax issues - on the other hand, she holds back, interestingly, to Scholz on the left.
It seems almost logical that the Social Democrat later refers to a "good, friendly cooperation" with the Green politician.
The biggest mistake
It is not the candidates who take care of the unpleasant moments that evening, but the moderators.
The block, which is about gendered language, is moderated by RTL man Peter Kloeppel with a reference to corona deniers: "Many people also join them by not necessarily being lateral thinkers, but saying we can in here No longer telling our country what we actually want. «You have to come to such a transition first.
To begin with, Kloeppel and co-presenter Pinar Atalay want to know from Baerbock, Scholz and Laschet what one of the others can do worse than they do.
All three resist: they don't want to campaign at this level.
And then Baerbock feels compelled to explain that laws are made by the Bundestag and that a chancellor does not put measures into force immediately after being sworn in.
The funniest moment
It never gets really cheerful in the group.
The moderators' request to say something nice about one of the competitors creates the most amusing moment of the evening: Scholz, somewhat clumsily, calls Baerbock a "very committed politician," while Baerbock praises Laschet's cheerful Rhenish nature.
And then the first thing Laschet thinks about Scholz is: "He's been with us for a long time."
