TV triall about the federal election: "Armin Laschet now needs a miracle"

Read the video transcript here

Veit Medick, DER SPIEGEL:

“For me there was a moment of the triell.

And that was Annalena Baerbock's sentence to Armin Laschet, who was standing next to her, that the CDU must now go into the opposition.

You can find out a lot about it, tell about what has happened in the past few months. "

Annalena Baerbock, candidate for Chancellor The Greens:

“A green-led government is required for a new start.

And that the Union is best to go into the opposition because it stands for yesterday's politics, I believe that today's triall has once again underlined. "

A week before the federal election: The third and final TV triall showed above all a rapprochement between the SPD and the Greens.

According to the current polls, Annalena Baerbock's party is almost certainly part of almost every possible coalition right now.

And SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz currently seems to be the most promising candidate for the office of Federal Chancellor.

Olaf Scholz, SPD candidate for chancellor:

“That will of course work best if the SPD achieves a very good result.

And then I don't want to hide the fact that I would like to form a government, of course, together with the Greens. "

So much red-green agreement.

And Armin Laschet?

It will be tight for the Union's candidate for chancellor - in the election, but also in possible coalition talks afterwards.

Veit Medick, DER SPIEGEL:

»Laschet's only government option is the Jamaica Alliance, an alliance with the Greens and the FDP.

And for that he needs the Greens.

But if they say from the start that the CDU has to go into the opposition now and actually sound like it did 20 years ago - namely the clear fronts, clear camps are back - I lack the imagination a bit like this Jamaica- Alliance should actually be formed after the election. "

It wasn't that long ago that the Union and the Greens seemed like the dream couple in German politics.

Veit Medick, DER SPIEGEL:

»The alliance of that time, in some federal states, soon also in the federal government, some conservative, others climate-driven.

That fit.

And many dreamed it up in such a way that they actually thought, oh, we don't really need to vote anymore. "

But shortly before the election, the possible project of a black-green government seems a long way off.

Armin Laschet, CDU candidate for chancellor:

“And the real directional decision that is at stake now is: is there a red-red-green alliance?

Many positions that we have heard today are also congruent with the left.

Or is there a bourgeois government?

That is the decision. "

According to a quick poll, Armin Laschet ended up just in second place ahead of Annalena Baerbock in the third triumph - but that's not enough for a strong tailwind in the final spurt of the election campaign.

Veit Medick, DER SPIEGEL:

“He didn't manage to get on the offensive.

He also failed to come up with a plan or a project that this country would discuss.

Laschet said for a long time that content should be discussed in this election campaign.

Content was discussed yesterday.

And one has to say, he can be glad that there was not more talk about content in this election campaign.

Because he didn't have that much on offer.

The Union looks pretty bare there. "

When it comes to climate policy, the conservative CDU / CSU would actually like an alliance with the Greens.

Annalena Baerbock's wish to send the Union into the opposition comes at an inopportune time for Armin Laschet.

Veit Medick, DER SPIEGEL:

“Laschet now needs a miracle to leave the field victorious on this election Sunday, which is six days from now.

That is not at all impossible, but as of now I would say it is quite difficult.

And if he doesn't make it, the Union as a whole will face difficult days and weeks. "