There they are again, the thumbs. Just like in a debate among employers at the start of the election campaign The top candidates should now also hold up a cardboard thumb in the DGB election arena after each block of topics to show approval of a thesis. There is a lack of clarity when it comes to the question of whether daycare centers should be free. Özdemir gives the thumbs up, but only wants the last year of daycare to be free and compulsory. Just like CDU candidate Manuel Hagel. But he keeps his thumbs down.
There are still 25 days until the election, the umpteenth election campaign arena, and the two leading candidates are still avoiding it Ozdemir and Hagelto really go into open battle. Why? All surveys show that there is only enough for one possible coalition beyond the AfD: namely the one between the CDU and the Greens. It’s better to stay friendly, even when times are tough.
Because Thousands of jobs are currently being lost in Baden-Württemberg. Car manufacturers and, above all, suppliers, who have ensured prosperity for decades, are cutting jobs every week. The solutions for this but are not part of state politics, explains Cem Özdemir and first lists what the European Union should do to improve the overall economic situation. Manuel Hagel wants special economic zones in Baden-Württemberg in which fewer regulations and possibly lower tax rates apply. Muted applause for both.
It’s not that Özdemir doesn’t skillfully get in touch with the union audience. Referring to his background, he calls for a school system in which educational success is no longer dependent on parents. He is reminiscent of the trade unionist and anti-fascist Willi Bleicher, after whom the event hall is named. He castigates the arbitrary decision of the state building minister from the CDU, who excluded university cities such as Mannheim and Konstanz from the rent cap.
But all of this remains strangely non-committal. Maybe also because Özdemir has given this speech several times and the evening’s moderators let all the candidates get away with their text modules.
A bit of class warfare from the SPD
SPD leading candidate Andreas Stoch brings some friction to the debate. He points out that during the crisis, those employees who have made record profits through their work are suddenly presented as the problem by companies. He also criticizes Özdemir and Hagel’s cheap commitment to social partnership: It was the green-black state government that did not consistently implement its collective agreement loyalty law, which is intended to ensure that the state only commissions companies that pay according to the tariff, and sells it as a reduction in bureaucracy.
Kim-Sofie Bohnen, one of the Left Party’s three top candidates, provides the emotional accents and, as always, talks about her experiences in the door-to-door election campaign, which the Left Party seems to have invented. They want to allay people’s fears about losing their home and job, she says, but doesn’t explain how. Bohnen manages to simultaneously demand free daycare centers and better wages for educators without even addressing the question of costs.
Erik Schweikert from the FDP can no longer hold on and resorts to the last resort: defending the state government. “I’m not the press spokesman for the Green-Black Party,” he says, but then explains that this is exactly how the coalition is setting the wages for educators have increasedthat other professional groups in the public service take this as an example. Özdemir and Hagel nod.
Overall, the format seems out of date for a long time because the audience doesn’t get a chance to ask questions or intervene. But also because everyone is raising concerns about populism and social division, but the candidate from the 20 percent strong AfD is once again not present. Markus Frohnmaier canceled the organized craft panel in January due to scheduling reasons. He wasn’t even invited to the DGB. The unions are facing works council elections nationwide and want to keep the number of right-wing representatives as small as possible. But hiding is probably not a solution either.