There was great skepticism when CDU politician Mario Voigt agreed to an argument with AfD right winger Björn Höcke. It could now be a signal for the confrontation with right-wing extremists.
Erfurt/Berlin - He wanted to bring AfD right-winger Björn Höcke into the spotlight and ask him about the content - Thuringia's CDU leader Mario Voigt's demands on the TV duel were high. The day after, the 47-year-old, who has ambitions to become prime minister after the state elections in September, felt a certain sense of relief. There had already been a lot of criticism in advance of the debate on broadcaster Welt - on the anniversary of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar. But not only Voigt seems to be satisfied with the result - even if the debate sometimes became quite trivial, such as the question of whether people in Thuringia say Mettbrötchen or Hackedbrötchen.
“It was the right thing to do,” said Voigt, who is the CDU’s top candidate for the state election. Democracy needs debate - experts also see it that way. Voigt succeeded in unmasking Höcke - especially on the issues of the EU and migration, said Dresden political scientist Hans Vorländer to the dpa. "It has become clear how racist, nationalistic and ethnic Höcke argues - and that such positions harm the country and do not help." Now the controversial political experiment of a public exchange of blows with top people in the AfD could even set a precedent. After all, it's not just the CDU that is looking for strategies to stop the rise of the AfD, which has been observed as a right-wing extremist party in Thuringia by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2021.
Confrontation instead of firewall?
Voigt was celebrated for his appearance by the CDU. Party leader Friedrich Merz called on the SPD, Greens and FDP to also seek direct confrontation with the AfD. “This party must not have any more influence in Germany. We are moving forward, but I call on others to follow us,” he said on “ProSieben Newstime”. Secretary General Carsten Linnemann admitted on the TV channel Welt that the attempt to simply ignore the AfD had failed. “For years people only talked about firewalls. So somehow that didn’t work, did it?”
But the duel is also considered a success in the Höcke camp. AfD co-chairwoman Alice Weidel wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “Excellent performance by our Thuringian top candidate @BjoernHoecke”. According to the Dresden political scientist Vorländer, Höcke has failed to “show himself as pious and equal”. That was a major concern of critics of the TV duel: Höcke could get a national stage, and the most radical representative of the AfD could become socially acceptable. Even after the duel, there were voices that viewed the two's performance as a mistake.
Creeping normalization of right-wing extremist positions?
Buchenwald memorial director Jens-Christian Wagner wrote on The duel offered him the big stage for this. “Democracy has lost.”
The Central Council of Jews in Germany, however, praised the dispute. “The TV duel between Björn Höcke and Mario Voigt showed that AfD officials have to be confronted again and again with their radical views,” said Central Council President Josef Schuster to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” (NOZ). “Then it can also help if someone like Höcke tries to talk himself out on television to the point of self-abandonment and presents a sad picture.”
Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left) accused Voigt of having "given a right-wing extremist a significant increase in attention" just to make himself better known. “Höcke remains a Nazi and Voigt remains a candidate for prime minister who continues to avoid the question of whether or not he would be elected to office with the votes of the AfD,” Ramelow told the news portal t-online.
“Haven’t you tried everything?”
Voigt spoke of a “battle for the middle”. “I don’t want to be standing there on September 2nd and having to ask myself the question: Haven’t you tried everything?” he said. A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia on September 1st. The AfD has recently lost popularity in surveys, but was in first place - ahead of the CDU and the Left. There is a risk of another difficult formation of a government. Voigt reiterated his claim that he wanted to become the strongest force in Thuringia with the CDU.
According to political scientist Vorländer, whether such a duel could win back potential AfD voters for democratic parties is speculation. “Anyone who is tempted to vote for the AfD because of dissatisfaction with other parties might have second thoughts.”
Voigt and Höcke had a heated argument on broadcaster Welt - on topics such as European politics, migration and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. More than a million people tuned in and followed the dispute. Höcke demanded, among other things, that the war in Ukraine must be ended as quickly as possible “at any price.” He claimed that Russia is “a beleaguered country” and “Russia wants peace.” Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 in violation of international law. Since then, a bloody war has been raging with high losses on both sides.
When it came to migration, Höcke surprised everyone with a new interpretation of the term “remigration”. It is also about bringing German emigrants back into the country. As a rule, right-wing extremists mean by “remigration” that a large number of people of foreign origin should leave the country - even under duress. After the conversation, Voigt said that Höcke's reinterpretation of the term would harm his supporters. “This shows that he doesn’t stand by the things he said in speeches and partly wrote in his book.”
How emotionally charged the atmosphere around the TV duel was became clear the day after the broadcast: a reporter from the TV channel Welt was attacked by a man in front of the Thuringian state parliament. A live broadcast showed how the attacker first hit journalist Steffen Schwarzkopf in the head and then snapped his finger against his ear. Another man intervened. The live switch was canceled. The police are investigating the 42-year-old man on suspicion of bodily harm and insults. dpa