Corriere della Sera: “Polls will show whether the risk was worth it”
“And the ‘Reich Chancellor’ was finally on television. In the very first duel on German television in the studio of the TV channel Welt, the Thuringian CDU chairman Mario Voigt called his opponent Björn Höcke from the AfD the ‘Reich Chancellor’. And he got the answer: ‘Now you’re becoming radically populist.’ This is how the last taboo fell in Axel Springer’s studio. A confrontation between a traditional politician and an AfD extremist. What’s more, with a representative of his most radical, openly neo-Nazi wing. Höcke, who advocates so-called remigration (…) , is under surveillance by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution because of anti-constitutional ideas, they are so racist.
But Höcke is not a politician who should be taken lightly. In Thuringia, where the election will take place on September 1st, he is well ahead in the polls. (…) Against all advice and after two months of nationwide debate, Voigt accepted the fatal duel. The surveys will show whether the risk was worth it. Political opponents criticized the initiative, arguing that racist ideas should be denied any platform. The SPD advised Germans to watch Netflix. The CDU also once argued in this spirit. Angela Merkel’s maxim was: Never talk to the right-wing AfD. Like so many of the Chancellor’s legacies, this one has also been disregarded.” Here go to the post.
German press agency: “Theses, facts and figures were mixed up”
“Theses, facts and figures on European, economic and migration policy swirled around – and sometimes it became rather trivial: Is it now called Mett- or Gehacktesbrötchen in Thuringia? (…) When it came to the classic AfD topic of migration, it was noticeable that CDU politician Voigt formulated it comparatively sharply. (…) Höcke got into trouble when the moderators asked him about his use of the SA slogan ‘Everything for Germany’ in a speech.”
Merkur: “Voigt’s strategy worked”
“Voigt tried to confront Höcke with facts instead of accusations. And Höcke? The AfD man avoided questions about his extreme demands. Both can score points for themselves. The moderation was able to shine the most. (…) While Höcke CDU -Man Voigt was the ‘destroyer of Germany’s wealth’ and his party was responsible for the disillusionment with politics in the country, but at the end of the duel he still offered him a coalition in Thuringia. Most parts of the duel were hardly about state politics. Although Höcke voted for Voigt “We were able to put Merkel’s policy under pressure, but the bottom line was that the AfD politician often found himself in trouble; Voigt’s strategy of factual confrontation largely worked.” Here go to the post.
Catholic news agency: “Voigt and Höcke gave each other nothing”
“This much is clear: in the first so-called TV duel for the election, the AfD state chairman Björn Höcke and Thuringia’s CDU leader Mario Voigt gave each other nothing. (…) But in most cases Höcke managed to overcome the content raised To waffle away points. There is simply no room for differentiated questions in such a ‘duel format’ – especially with the predominantly weak moderation. (…) For whom the ‘duel’ – besides the probably for world TV standards “It’s hard to say whether the country’s extensive reach was really used. The concrete political insights remained scarce, and around five months before the state elections the question arises as to what the whole thing was even about at this point in time.”