German politics is changing
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Olaf Scholz, Germany’s leading election candidate, suffered a major setback at his second televised conference. last week a crackdown on the finance ministry in Berlin, with his self-proclaimed colleague Armin Laschet accusing him of failing to manage his finances.
“It’s amazing that even in this case, when government prosecutors come to your service and search there, you can just try to hide everything,” said Laschet, who wants to join the CDU / CSU.
A heated 90-minute debate between Laschet, Scholz, a left-wing Social Democrats, and Annalena Baerbock of the Greens took place two weeks before the election to elect Angela Merkel as German chancellor.
The protest, which was broadcast on German radio stations ARD and ZDF on Sunday night, came as a respite from Laschet, who was forced to leave his party unstable in voting stopping the continuous rise of Scholz, Germany’s finance minister and deputy chancellor.
A survey conducted on Sunday put Scholz’s Social Democrats at 26% and CDU / CSU at 21%. The Greens are at 16% and Democrats pro-businesses are free at 12%.
But early indications suggest that Laschet’s rude performance may not have been enough to reduce the limit and create a reduction in those who were retained. According to a survey conducted by ZDF, 32% found that Scholz did very well in the race, 26% threw Baerbock and only 20% in Laschet.
German critics slandered the Ministry of Finance and Justice last week as part of an investigation into allegations of misconduct by the Financial Intelligence Unit, Germany’s largest financial agency.
Scholz said the research has nothing to do with his ministry, and that they are simply looking for helpful information on their questions. He also said that, during his tenure, the FIU was transformed and its potential grew exponentially.
But Laschet said, since Scholz oversees the FIU, he was responsible for the crisis in the organization. “You have a responsibility to manage money fraudulently,” he said. He also said it was “inappropriate” that Scholz had condemned the terrorists last week, saying “this is what is happening in other countries”.
Laschet also blamed the finance minister for the fraudulent digital payments company Rope, which Germany’s finance minister BaFin failed to find.
“The result of what you have done is that financial management has failed,” he said. “If my finance minister was acting like you did, we would have a big problem.”
On several occasions in the trial, Scholz accused Laschet of being “dishonest”, claiming that he “deliberately made a lie” that the investigation into the allegations was in his finance ministry, not at the FIU.
He also said that he has found the right answers to the issue of Wirecard, and has improved the financial system in Germany, forcing companies to change frequent accountants and to separate accounting and support services.
Followers were interviewed on the issue of approved vaccines and whether workers should be compelled to get tested for coronavirus.
They were also asked what major lessons have been learned from the epidemic. Laschet said Europe should make its own masks with other PPE without relying on imports from other countries; Baerbock convened an “emergency committee” in the chancellery to address the medical crisis; and Scholz called for international health work.
All three agreed that Germany should not take part in carbon emissions by at least 2045, although they differ on how to achieve this. Baerbock also called for Germany to stop generating electricity from coal faster than the 2038 agreement with Merkel’s government, and to eliminate cars and diesel.
Although they often differ, there was a connection between Scholz and Baerbock. All of them want to raise wages, eliminate two forms of health insurance, secure fixed pensions and introduce economic taxation.
Laschet cited “significant differences” between him and others – strongly condemning the increase in taxes. He also said that the last few years have shown that “even if we do not raise taxes the government takes more money”.