Can fact checks still catch this? The TV duel between the Thuringian top candidates from the CDU and AfD is causing sharp criticism.
A good five months before the state elections in Thuringia, the two top candidates from the CDU and AfD, Mario Voigt and Björn Höcke, argued on TV about the topics of Europe and immigration.
There had already been clear criticism of the television duel, which lasted more than 70 minutes. The SPD, the Greens and the Left, among others, accused Voigt of offering right-wing extremists a platform and normalizing their positions and agitation. Voigt countered that the confrontation with Höcke was “of central importance in exposing his dangerous ideologies.”
And even after the broadcast, the criticism of the format continued. “Höcke throws around false figures and claims about development cooperation. Voigt doesn’t contradict, moderation doesn’t intervene. It works really well with the content,” criticized Green MP Jamila Schäfer on Platform X.
“A disaster”
The economist Jens Sudekum quoted a Höcke statement on migration on
A journalist from the WDR political magazine Monitor wrote: “No fact check in the world will be able to capture this disinformation and normalization.”
CDU General Secretary: Voigt can be Prime Minister
The CDU leadership was satisfied with Voigt’s performance. “Mario Voigt showed this evening that he can be prime minister,” said CDU general secretary Carsten Linnemann to the “Rheinische Post”. He described Voigt’s performance on Thursday evening as calm, competent and close to the Thuringians. “His courageous course to confront the right-wing extremists in terms of content has proven to be spot on.”
Linnemann said a chill ran down his spine when Höcke pretended not to know the SA slogan he used. “The fact is: He repeated it a few weeks later. Such people should not have any responsibility in our country for a second.”
CDU MP Paul Ziemiak also praised his party colleague for the TV duel. “Make the populists confident with expertise: Mario Voigt shows how it’s done,” said Ziemiak on X.
Elections will take place in the Free State on September 1st. The Left currently has Bodo Ramelow as Prime Minister there. Ramelow was the winner of the evening without being present, said Martin Schirdewan, leader of the Left Party. “You don’t disenchant right-wing extremists in terms of content by placing your own positions so far to the right that the other person no longer has room for their contempt for humanity.” Voigt and Höcke both proved that they did not have the stature of a prime minister.
A new state parliament will be elected in Thuringia on September 1st. In the surveys, the AfD was ahead with up to 36 percent, followed by the CDU with values around 20 percent. The Left, which currently governs with the Greens and the SPD under Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow without a majority of its own, was recently polled at a maximum of 18 percent. The SPD achieved six to nine percent, the Greens were at five percent.
