Rehlinger and Hans exchange blows on coalition issues
Created: 2022-02-17Updated: 2022-02-17, 10:50 p.m
Anke Rehlinger (SPD) and Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU).
© Oliver Dietze/dpa
It was the only TV duel between CDU top candidate Tobias Hans (CDU) and SPD challenger Anke Rehlinger before the state elections in Saarland.
Exciting questions remained unanswered.
Saarbrücken - The SPD's top candidate for the state elections in Saarland, Anke Rehlinger, is not committing itself to a desired coalition in the event of an election victory.
"I have always had great sympathy for the grand coalition," said the Economics Minister during a television duel on Thursday evening on Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR).
She also did not rule out a traffic light coalition with the FDP and the Greens.
But it is clear: "I cannot imagine a coalition with the Left Party, it is currently not capable of governing."
For her, it is crucial who will lead the future government.
"And right now we're one step ahead." Stability and reliability could happen with the grand coalition.
Saarland Prime Minister and CDU top candidate Tobias Hans, who currently governs with the SPD in a grand coalition, spoke out in favor of continuing the alliance.
He wanted "to achieve that I become the strongest force with my CDU Saar.
And if the CDU Saar is ahead, then I will also make an offer to Mrs. Rehlinger".
He did not answer the question of whether he could also imagine the CDU as a junior partner in a grand coalition.
He said to Rehlinger: "Anyone who wants Groko must then vote for the CDU, because only we say clearly: if we're ahead, we'll do it too."
A new state parliament will be elected in Saarland on March 27th.
The smallest state in Germany has been governed by a grand coalition led by the CDU since 2012.
According to the latest survey by the opinion research institute Infratest Dimap (February 16), the SPD currently has 38 percent of the votes, the CDU 29 percent.
The CDU has been the Prime Minister in the state since 1999.
"Such surveys" are "snapshots" and "not election forecasts," said Hans.
"That's why it's not something that completely shocks you." But of course the values are "not satisfactory".
He believes that this also has something to do with the "sanding marks" that Corona is leaving behind: "For two years now, I've been the one who has been delivering the bad news, who has had to announce restrictive measures, even if they were decided in the coalition together with Ms. Rehlinger .”
Rehlinger countered: "Wherever we made joint decisions as a government and where it was planned that we would make a statement together, I did that." However, they had different opinions on the implementation of the institution-related vaccination requirement.
Both spoke out in favor of the introduction of a general obligation to vaccinate.
This is the only way to “get ahead of the wave” in the pandemic, said Rehlinger.
It would be good if we could now agree on a proposal.
The problem is "that people no longer believe in it," said Hans.
And that has to do with "the political games within the traffic light coalition" in the federal government.
There was no government proposal, although that had been promised for February.
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According to SR, it was the only TV duel between Hans and Rehlinger before the Saar election.
On March 17th, another "elephant round" is planned with all the top candidates of the parties who, according to "Saarlandtrend", have a chance of entering the state parliament.
The Saarland elections are the first state elections after the federal elections in autumn 2021. dpa
