Germany: Scholz, Merz Argue on TV over AfD and Economy
The first televised duel between incumbent chancellor, Social Democratic Party leader Olaf Scholz and his main rival from the Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, ahead of Germany's early elections on February 23
The countdown to early parliamentary elections scheduled for February 23 has begun in Germany. Two “historic” German parties fear the growing popularity of the right-wing, represented by the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party led by Alice Weidel (pictured).
It is no coincidence that the topic of the AfD’s rapid rise was at the center of the first televised duel between German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (Social Democratic Party, SPD) and Christian Democrat Friedrich Merz, the CDU candidate for chancellor. Scholz said his main rival, the leader of the German conservatives, “betrayed his word and broke the taboo (by opening up to the far-right Alternative for Germany) and may do so again.” However, the CDU candidate reiterated: “We will not cooperate with the AfD. Worlds separate us. As for Europe, NATO, the euro, Russia, America, there’s nothing in common between us.”
The CDU-CSU alliance (29%) lost one point compared to last week, according to a poll by the German public opinion research center INSA, published on Sunday, February 9, by the magazine Bild am Sonntag. The AfD party’s rating is stable at 21 percent, while the SPD’s rating is 16 percent. The Greens are stuck at 12 percent, Sahra Wagenknecht’s Union Party (BSW) is stuck at 6 percent, the Left Party gains one point to reach the 5 percent mark, while the FDP Liberals remain below the pass threshold of 4 percent (chart below).
As the German magazine Spiegel wrote at the end of the 90-minute televised duel, “neither candidate is considered the unequivocal winner of the standoff, while Merz’s lead in the polls allowed him to keep his cool and not succumb to the aggressiveness of the chancellor, who two weeks before the election had clearly adopted a defensive posture.”
Scholz criticized Merz for the share of financial resources allocated to defense: “The only honest position is that of the Social Democrats,” he said, reiterating that “whoever proposes 3% should say how they intend to finance it.” On foreign policy, Scholz reiterated his opposition to providing long-range Taurus missiles for Ukraine and called US President Donald Trump’s proposal for a “Middle East Riviera” in the Gaza Strip “scandalous.”
