ARD "Wahlarena" Merz takes the S-Bahn - Weidel gets personal
Six days before the Bundestag elections, the candidates for chancellor face questions from voters in an ARD program. Weidel in particular goes private.
18.02.2025, 06:12
18.02.2025, 07:13
dpa
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- In the ARD "Wahlarena", the candidates for chancellor had to answer critical questions from the public about pensions, taxes, the shortage of skilled workers and high rents.
- Union chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz tried to score points with voters by announcing tax cuts and radical changes to the citizens' income.
- Alice Weidel (AfD) also spoke out in favor of lower taxes and energy prices as well as less bureaucracy.
In the ARD "Wahlarena", the candidates for chancellor had to answer critical questions from the public on pensions, taxes, the shortage of skilled workers and high rents. Union chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz tried to score points with voters by announcing tax cuts and radical changes to the citizens' income. "Those who don't work but can work will no longer receive a citizen's allowance in future," the CDU politician announced in the event of a CDU/CSU-led government after the federal elections on February 23.
Merz promised "more net from the gross" to a teacher for nursing professions who works part-time in her husband's company and who complained about the tax burden, which she felt was too high. "We have too high a tax burden in Germany," he added. This also affects people with low and medium incomes.
Alice Weidel (AfD) also spoke out in favor of lower taxes and energy prices as well as less bureaucracy.
Climate protection and regulation
There are differences with the Greens in particular when it comes to climate protection, said Merz. The CDU/CSU is committed to technological openness and innovation. "We don't want more regulation." In his opinion, the course of the former traffic light government and the Greens does not have the approval of the population in the long term. "If we do, then we have to do it with the population."
Merz said that the CDU/CSU was also backing CO2 pricing, which would make heating and refueling more expensive. It is not the case that "prices will go through the roof, that will not be the case". The increase will be gradual in order to take the population with it.
Green candidate for chancellor Robert Habeck disagreed with some of Merz's statements. "Behind the word "open to technology" lies an attack on the climate targets," said Habeck. New heating systems would be subsidized if they were not powered by fossil fuels, he said, referring to the Heating Act. Habeck also called for a link between student grants and social benefits as a whole and inflation. He also wanted to close "injustice gaps"; for example, it was not clear why students received more Bafög than trainees.
Merz can be found on the Berlin S-Bahn
When someone asked about the Deutschlandticket, Merz said: "I use the S-Bahn and U-Bahn relatively often here in Berlin, my security people don't like it anymore, but I travel a lot here." He spoke out in favor of maintaining the Deutschlandticket beyond the current year. It would be necessary to reach an agreement with the federal states on how to pay for it, "because it's a pretty expensive project". Merz also qualified that the ticket was "above all something for the conurbations".
A citizen from the area around Hamburg told Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) that her home had been taken from her twice because she needed it. Each time she moved, it had become more expensive. The federal government had failed to achieve its goal of creating more affordable housing.
Scholz replied that "concrete measures are needed for existing rents", such as the extension of the rent freeze. The federal government had also created the basis for more affordable new homes to be built.
Does Weidel's lifestyle suit the AfD?
A young man who introduced himself as a homosexual wanted to know from Weidel: "How can you actually be a member of this party as a homosexual person?" Weidel was also asked by other studio guests about her personal life situation as a woman who lives with a wife and two children in a registered civil partnership. The AfD's election manifesto states: "The family, consisting of father, mother and children, is the nucleus of society." Weidel said that this was a "guiding principle" that she also represented.
She also argued that registered civil partnerships, such as hers, should be legally treated in the same way as marriage. "Why shouldn't me and my wife have the same tax treatment as in a normal marriage?" It is a big issue in her home, and she discusses with her wife how inheritance tax is regulated when she passes away. "And I believe that our civil partnership should not be subordinate to a traditional marriage." This demand is not represented by the AfD as a party in its election manifesto.
Close handover between the candidates
In the program "Wahlarena 2025 zur Bundestagswahl", voters had the opportunity to put their questions live to the candidates for chancellor. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) had tried in vain to win a place on the program through legal action.
The format of the program did not allow for longer conversations between the four candidates for chancellor, who were interviewed one after the other. However, there were brief encounters. When Weidel appeared after Scholz and was asked by the presenters whether she had recently learned anything new about the chancellor, she replied: "I've seen him in two governments and I think everything has been said." Scholz feels the same way. He said: "Ms. Weidel remains true to herself, and I know why I say: you can't work with this party in Germany."