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TV duel before the NRW election: More cotton ball than tavern

2022-05-12T21:36:47.353Z


Shortly before the state elections, Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and challenger Thomas Kutschaty met in a TV duel. They talked about police officers and daycare centers – and embarrassed themselves when asked about their programs.


Enlarge image

SPD politician Kutschaty, CDU Prime Minister Wüst before the TV duel in Solingen

Photo: Oliver Berg / dpa

The initial situation:

The NRW election has what it takes to consolidate the political situation in Germany.

Or counteract them.

If the SPD wins around top candidate Thomas Kutschaty, the federal government could get an image of its kind - if CDU Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst stays in office, they will get a counter-proposal.

In recent polls, the CDU and SPD were almost level, with slight advantages for Wüst.

On Thursday evening, the candidates met for the TV duel.

It was the first and only date in the election campaign where Wüst and Kuchaty faced each other directly.

The WDR broadcast the debate from the Alte Schlossfabrik in Solingen, the questions were asked by editors-in-chief Ellen Ehni and Gabi Ludwig.

This is how they appeared:

initially concerned, since it was initially about the arrest of a 16-year-old in Essen, who had apparently planned a bomb attack on two schools.

He was "shocked by the extent of the willingness to use violence," said Wüst.

Kuchaty said: "When a 16-year-old builds bombs, something has gone terribly wrong." Both acted statesmanlike, they concentrated largely on themselves and their issues.

This is how the two treated each other:

Polite, at least for a TV duel.

And for an election in which up to 20 percent of voters are undecided.

Nobody wanted to be aggressive.

No one interrupted the other.

Wüst rarely looked at Kutschaty, Kutschaty looked over at Wüst quite often and nodded several times when the prime minister spoke.

Overall more cotton ball than tavern.

Central issues:

Internal security, which the CDU actually saw as cleared away by Interior Minister Reul and his media campaign against clan crime, had once again become central to the election campaign due to the spectacular shooting in Duisburg and the arrest in Essen.

Not only clans are the problem, said Kutschaty, it's about organized crime as a whole, including rockers and the mafia.

Wüst praised his interior minister's path: "We used to see completely different pictures." There are 40,000 police officers in the country, and the CDU wants 45,000 soon.

The SPD also wanted more police on the streets and in the authorities, said Kuchaty.

There was also broad agreement on the second topic, education.

The country needs more teachers.

Both candidates were generally in favor of hospitals close to home.

Wüst relied on the specialization of the clinics.

"It's bad when a doctor only performs an operation ten times a year," he said.

The most important finding:

Either, the top candidates swim when it comes to their own election program.

Or the party programs are very similar.

The moderators read sentences from one of the two programs several times, Wüst and Kuchaty then had to guess which party the excerpts go back to.

"We want to reduce the workload in the caring professions in order to attract more people to this important work." Both tapped their own election program, the sentence comes from the SPD.

"It cannot be left to the market alone to determine where which hospital is with which medical offer." Both tapped their own election program, the sentence comes from the CDU.

"We need more living space that is subject to rent control." Both tap their own program, the sentence comes from the CDU.

The editors had deliberately chosen places in the programs that sound similar.

Still, it's amazing that they found so many examples, and that Wüst and Kuchaty were wrong so often with their tips.

Hottest moment:

It never got really hot, only sometimes a little warmer.

When it came to the loss of lessons in the schools, Wüst said: "We first started to document it at all.

That wasn't recorded before.« Kuchaty doubted that such statistics would be of any use.

Wüst shook his head: "We have to make the problem transparent, we need facts and figures to change it." Kuchaty saw it differently: "The parents can see how often the children are at home because hours have been missed again .

You're welcome to process this with statistics, but it's important that we get more teachers quickly.«

Wüst's strongest moment:

He managed to make personal connections to the problems.

When it came to parents having a hard time finding daycare places for their children, the prime minister talked about his one-year-old daughter.

He knows how complicated it is, said Wüst.

"Our little one is supposed to start daycare in August, my wife and I can sing a song about it, we need more places."

Later it was about the transformation of the industry in NRW, about the problems of the companies with the energy questions.

His father worked in the textile industry in Westmünsterland, Wüst said.

»When I was a child, it felt like a different textile company went bankrupt every day.

My father sat in front of a bottle of beer in the evening and was sad.« Dear voters, I am one of you – Wüst got this message across.

Kuchaty's strongest moment:

He scored in education.

With concrete ideas on how to combat the teacher shortage.

8,000 positions in the schools are vacant, he said.

It's about better pay, politicians have to take care of career changers: "Why can't a graduate biologist also be a good biology teacher?" he asked.

There must be a "comeback campaign" to bring back dropouts to the teaching profession.

Offers should be made to career starters: "Now work two hours more per week, but retire earlier."

It's still regulated differently: "If you live in Duisburg, you pay daycare fees, in Düsseldorf you don't," said Kutschaty.

Which topics were missing:

Poverty, for example.

NRW occupies various top positions in the poverty rankings.

Rising inflation was not addressed, nor was consumer energy prices.

Last year, NRW was hit by a millennium flood, almost 50 people died.

But nobody spoke that evening about the flood and the consequences.

NRW is still the number one congestion area in Germany, and that was also excluded.

It also remained unclear how more teachers, police officers and nurses should be financed.

Coalition statements:

who with whom after the election?

That wasn't debated.

The moderators only asked Wüst and Kuchaty what they considered to be non-negotiable points in coalition negotiations.

“What is immovable is that climate protection and jobs go together,” Wüst replied.

Kuchaty said that he would "put children and young people at the center of all political decisions".

Conclusion:

Wüst was probably waiting for a punch from Kuchaty in this TV duel, but it didn't come.

In this respect, the incumbent should feel like a winner.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-12

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