She's behind you!

Dear Reader,

Yesterday evening, the four chancellor candidates came up against the general public in a TV show called Klartext (plain speech). The candidates took turns, and each of them was given a strict limit of half an hour.

In reality, a more accurate name may have been: “Why don’t you give more money to the things I like?”

First up was Olaf Scholz, who was confronted by a student who wanted the government to keep subsidising rents; Robert Habeck was admonished by the owner of a fleet of electric cars for cutting EV subsidies at the end of 2023; and Friedrich Merz was taken to task by a rail enthusiast who wanted cheap rail fares.

Because he thinks that everyone should be given more money, Robert Habeck won the contest. He humbly apologised to the owner of the electric cars, saying that the decision was forced upon him. The questioner then praised him for being “a rare politician who admits to his mistakes” leading to a hearty round of applause from the audience.

I was most intrigued to see how Alice Weidel, chancellor candidate for the nationalist AfD, would come across.