Berlin – With only two weeks until Germany goes to the polls, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the conservative favorite Friedrich Merz sank into each other for migration, the economy and how to manage the president American Donald Trump in a combative debate on national television Sunday evening.
“How stupid can someone be?” Asked Scholz at one point, attacker Merz for having sworn to divert asylum seekers on the German border-a decision, he argued, who would violate EU’s law and divide Europe at one point Where Germany needs European solidarity to counter Trump’s pricing threats.
But when Scholz said his government had managed to repress abuses in the asylum system, Merz retaliated.
“You don’t live on this planet,” he said. “What you say is a fairy tale.”
The confrontation came in the context of a political fire storm on Merz’s decision to try to use votes from the extreme right alternative for Germany (AFD) to push immigration proposals difficult through the Bundestag.
This decision has weakened the long-standing “firewall” from Germany against the extreme right, in place since the Second World War. Scholz seized the controversy to warn that Merz normalized the extreme right. “I seriously fear that you are considering a coalition with AFD after the elections,” he said.
Merz denied the accusation: “It will not happen,” he said.
Later in the debate, Merz blamed Scholz’s left government for allowing AFD’s sharp increase in polls. “This is a serious threat to our democracy,” said Merz. AFD “must become smaller again, and Mr. Scholz, with the Greens, tried to create a leftist policy in Germany. For a long time there has been no majority for left -wing policy in this country. »»
The debate also exposed striking differences in economic policy. Germany fighting against economic contraction and an energy crisis, Merz accused Scholz of not having protected the country from economic decline.
Scholz, in turn, blamed external shocks: “I am not I who invaded Ukraine, I am not I who stopped gas deliveries-that is to say (Russian president Vladimir) Putin. »»
Merz resumed, criticizing Scholz’s decision to close three nuclear power plants: “So why in the name of God did you put an end to nuclear energy?”
SCHOLZ ATTEN THAT REMONING OF READS – An option that the Conservatives have declared that they would explore – would cost 40 billion euros.
Politices
