"Hard but fair": Traffic light only one episode?

Kühnert is mocked after NRW statement – ​​he ducks away

Created: 05/17/2022, 10:09 am

"Hard but fair" (ARD): The guests at Frank Plasberg on May 16, 2022.

© Screenshot ARD Mediathek

NRW votes clearly black-green, the SPD is defeated, the FDP in the struggle for survival.

Are Olaf Scholz and his traffic light government counted?

Kevin Kühnert disagrees.

Berlin – It was an evening that Kevin Kühnert would probably have preferred to spend on the couch with real estate advertisements.

The SPD general secretary, who is currently looking for a flat in Berlin, received a lot of malice from "hard but fair".

Reason: His euphoric statement immediately after the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Kühnert had claimed a government claim for the SPD - even though the party had just brought in a historically disastrous result.

The question of the evening: Was this the end of the traffic light coalition, possibly the end of the SPD?

Moderator Frank Plasberg immediately grabs the branding iron.

“One rarely notices in real time when a new course is set for the political history of a country.

Yesterday could have been such a day.

The beginning of a new political decade, a black-green decade.”

Kevin Kühnert's gauntlet begins.

And it's long and painful.

The cannonade of pointed comments begins with a statement by the journalist Michael Bröcker.

He confronts Kühnert's claim to power soberly with reality: "The traffic light runs the risk of being just an episode."

colleague Melanie Amann stabs: "The election was a slap in the face for the traffic light." from the election evening, which met with a lack of understanding everywhere.

He maneuvers around, pushes his misinterpretation onto the first extrapolations.

But Plasberg leaves nothing to chance.

Karl Lauterbach called things by their proper name.

Why not him?

Kühnert dodges.

Kühnert on "hard but fair" after NRW defeat: "We are not election winners"

But, according to Plasberg, it was the SPD's declared goal to cultivate "a new style of politics".

After the election, however, Plasberg only saw “a perfectly normal Secretary General”.

“We talk a lot about disenchantment with politics.

Was that a new style of politics?” The time has come for “Kühnikev”, as he calls himself on Twitter, to show some humility.

In his own way.

"We're not the winners of the elections," he grudgingly admits, "and that's why we don't run around struggling." Which is exactly how he describes and revises his behavior on election night.

That's not enough for the group.

“Ship editor” Bröcker (as he calls himself because of his job) scolds Kühnert like a rascal: “It's about the style.

You said something completely different yesterday.

That's the old drawer.

We don't want to hear any more political phrases.

Then they only go in front of the cameras at 8 p.m.!

That did massive damage to the SPD.”

Spiegel-

Frau Amann and moderator Frank Plasberg are now even talking about Kühnert in the third person, while the one who was poured sits listlessly next to him.

"He didn't just say it at 6 p.m.," Amann sneers.

It was the leitmotif of the evening!” And Plasberg: “He almost did the Laschet.” The group grins.

Not bold.

"Hard but fair": These guests discussed with Frank Plasberg:

• Omid Nouripour

  (Federal Chairman of Alliance 90/The Greens)

• Michael Bröcker

  (editor-in-chief "The Pioneer")

• Melanie Amann

  (head of the capital city office “Der Spiegel”)

• Carsten Linnemann

  (deputy CDU party chairman)

• Kevin Kühnert

  (SPD General Secretary)

The SPD General reacts thin-skinned.

His face has been locked in crash mode since the beginning of the show.

He constantly interrupts his critic Bröcker before he can even utter a straight sentence.

Bröcker only wants to take up the keyword Laschet, who at the time had to justify himself for much less unjustified loser euphoria.

Also in front of a Kevin Kühnert.

CDU deputy leader Linnemann intervenes, and it doesn't get any better for Kühnert: "The SPD suffered its biggest defeat since the Second World War.

What happened last night not only harms you, it also harms us, harms politics as a whole because it increases disenchantment with politics.”

"Hard but fair" to the NRW election and traffic lights: "Was Scholz newly in love with Robert Habeck?"

The subject changes to Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

For Kühnert no time to take a deep breath.

Plasberg asks: "Was Scholz too naive or just in love with Robert Habeck when he promised this completely different government?" Kühnert tried a statesmanlike volley.

"I'm not going to let myself be disturbed by a bit of an argument about any tank discount," he says, knowing full well that the "bit" of inflation and price explosion is keeping many Germans from sleeping.

Instead, he wants to address the good SPD result in the Saarland election: "It's not like everything was bankruptcy, bad luck and breakdowns."

Bröcker is stunned: "We're not all stupid," he counters.

Olaf Scholz was billed big and wide, "and 800,000 SPD voters are leaving the flag.

That's a serious subject." Plasberg states succinctly: "Interesting: I didn't even ask about imploding and breaking up.

Just what became of the magic.” Bröcker blurted out: “Well, it’s gone!”

"Hard but fair" talk in the first: The problem is in the chancellery"

The stray fire continues: Melanie Amann happily quotes Anton Hofreiter's comment "The problem is in the chancellor's office" and Plasberg recalls the old CDU election slogan "It depends on the chancellor!".

He sums it up: “Scholz once stood for tailwind.

That's really over now. ”A single player brings a few poll numbers: Only 39 percent are satisfied with Scholz (minus twelve percent).

And only 27 percent find his crisis policy and communication convincing.

Amann calls the chancellor “the one driven by his own people”.

And Plasberg's deliberately cautious question as to whether there was still "room for improvement" at Scholz finally encouraged Kühnert to engage in remarkable self-reflection: "Of course, that's the case with all of us.

Scholz wasn't a block on the leg at all." Bröcker thinks that's a good cue and remarks dryly: "If what you say is true and Scholz had nothing to do with the result, then Kutschaty (note: SPD top candidate NRW) would have to resign today, tomorrow at the latest.” Rums.

Plasberg also gives Scholz a smug comment: "It's also said that he could reduce Valium consumption in Germany." As if to prove the opposite, the moderator clicks on a clip that shows Scholz unusually courageous during the election campaign.

“Do you know this man?” he then asks Kühnert provocatively.

And he counters unintentionally satirically: "Yes, but I don't think that the Germans want to be governed by a HB male in the long term."

CDU man Linnemann is now concrete.

He wants to know from Kühnert why everything is taking so long.

"When it comes to packages for Greece, I get the documents at 3 a.m., so everything goes very quickly.

But when it comes to relieving people, it takes months.” Bröcker takes the same line: Scholz gave many speeches, but never about inflation.

"He should have picked it up." Bröcker summarizes the government chaos: "I don't know of any economist who thinks what happened there makes sense."

Plasberg promises a pure SPD program for the next week to deal with all neglected topics.

"I think it's good," says Kühnert, visibly pleased.

Plasberg: "That was meant ironically." The impacts on the Kühnert rubble field continue.

Next topic: Defense Minister Lambrecht, her accidental business trip near the holiday resort of Sylt and her son's flight in the Bundeswehr helicopter.

And Scholz again, who even praised Lambrecht right after the holiday debacle.

Bröcker just shakes his head: "Instinctively.

Scholz can't leave a minister like that in office.

The SPD, I just don't understand them anymore."

Defense Minister Lambrecht: "Just a little sloppy"

Kühnert and Green leader Omid Nouripour are doing their best to praise the minister's work.

A pretty tough task.

Amann states: During the induction phase, Lambrecht "just slobbered a bit" because she actually wanted to be Minister of the Interior.

Slurp.

Not the only curious word creation that evening.

Plasberg, for example, accidentally calls Omid Nouripour Mr. "Omnipour", but promptly asks for forgiveness.

There are probably synapses wired wrong.

Everyone has to smile.

Kevin Kühnert not so.

He, who has often been accused of not having learned anything but how to talk, has found his temporary, linguistic boss in this round.

CDU man Linnemann finally formulates a dilemma that is also symbolic for this evening: The problem with politicians is: “We live in a bubble.

You're ready to drive, you travel first class on the train.

We need someone to ground us.

Otherwise you'll be somewhere in a UFO and no longer know what reality is like.” Omid Nouripour reflexively greets two friends named Oli and Matthias, and Linnemann himself sends greetings to his skat group at home.

It's supposed to be proof of down-to-earthness.

Conclusion of the "hard but fair" talk

Politicians who distance themselves from the people, who completely misinterpret the election results and reinterpret failures as successes: The topic of the program was also clearly illuminated by the behavior in the program itself.

The audience reactions, as they are traditionally recorded with "Hart aber fair", got to the point.

A catchy example from a spectator: "Olaf Scholz shouldn't have been allowed on the posters." Or also: "The Greens should change their symbol: replace the sunflower with a tank."