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Breakdown statistics from Baerbock, Laschet and Scholz: The Chancellor candidates in the faux pas comparison – politics

The election campaign is entering the decisive phase, but there can be no talk of liveliness among the top candidates. The breakdowns are increasing. But neither Armin Laschet (CDU) nor Annalena Baerbock (Greens) or Olaf Scholz (SPD) have yet been able to capitalize on the missteps of the competition.

Many voters are left perplexed, because who can they entrust the government office to in difficult times with a clear conscience? Personal mistakes of the trio cloud the relationship. And so the three-way battle seems more open than ever 52 days before the general election. The most recent breakdown history of the three top candidates: inside in comparison:

Armin Laschet (CDU)

A grin at the wrong time: During a speech by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in mid-July in memory of the flood victims in North Rhine-Westphalia, Laschet was filmed laughing heartily – right behind the head of state. It’s only a few seconds, but the action still depends on the Union’s top candidate. According to a Forsa survey for RTL and ntv, Laschet’s poll numbers have been in free fall since then. Although he apologized shortly afterwards for the laugh, the impressions of lack of empathy and seriousness still stick. The hashtag #Laschetlacht is trending on Twitter.

Only a few days later, Laschet had to admit the next mistake. After allegations of plagiarism for his book “The rising republic. Immigration as an opportunity” from 2009 became public, he apologized for missing sources. In addition, Laschet announced an examination of the book, the proceeds of which – as it became known in 2015 – he had not correctly taxed. #Laschetschrittenab was now the hashtag of the hour, although #Laschetlacht experienced a comeback: During visits to the flood areas, Laschet was massively criticized by those who suffered from the flood disaster – the NRW Prime Minister and his government had failed, among other things.

In any case, Laschet fights with the accusation of acting unsupervently in extreme political and social situations. At the end of June, the 60-year-old received criticism with the Corona statement: “If the incidence does not rise despite the spread of the delta variant, but continues to decrease every week, the effect does not seem to be that great.” A week later, his speech in the NRW state parliament caused a sensation, in which he called for “not only medical and scientific models of how terrible everything can get” for the federal crisis management.

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Even in his position as CDU leader, which he was able to successfully claim for himself after a tough duel with the former Union faction leader, Laschet is not undisputed. Too often, my critic, he gets lost in vague statements – nasty tongues claim that like his party’s electoral program, he lacks profile. He rejects a clear stance on the controversial CDU member and ex-constitutional protection chief Hans-Georg Maaßen as well as on climate change. In the meantime there is even a “Lasch-O-Mat” – an online site based on the “Wahl-O-Mat”, which spits out phrases ala Laschet on various political topics.

Annalena Baerbock (Greens)

Even the top candidate of the Greens is now practiced in the hurdles through the impassable election campaign – but like Laschet, the 40-year-old gets lost again and again in new problems. The latest faux pas was only two days ago: In her adopted home of Brandenburg, of all places, she mistook the Barnim and Oderbruch regions during an election campaign. That she led the Brandenburg Greens from 2009 to 2013 makes this blunder all the more absurd.

Much more bitter, however, are the allegations of plagiarism, which Baerbock also has to fight back. She is said to have copied some passages for her book “Jetzt. How we renew our country”. “In retrospect, it would certainly have been better if I had worked with a list of sources,” she told the Süddeutsche Zeitung after the allegations became known and announced improvements. Shortly afterwards, the “Tagesspiegel” revealed that Baerbock received a scholarship of more than 40,000 euros between 2009 and 2012 for her ultimately never completed doctorate – a questionable grant for a party politician who was already highly active at the time.

Like Laschet, Baerbock does not have a doctorate to lose, but the damage to his image is enormous. In April, when the Greens federal executive launched Baerbock’s top candidacy, party and person were both enjoying polls high of almost 30 percent. Well, several mishaps like the plagiarism affair or the use of the N-word later, it’s almost ten percentage points less.

The announcement of late notifications of income to the Bundestag administration also had a negative effect on Baerbock’s approval ratings. It was “a stupid failure” not to have reported the special payments in the amount of more than 25,000 euros on time, said Baerbock in May. As party leader, she received the money as a Christmas bonus for several years and “reported it immediately”.

Baerbock’s initial esprit seems to be gone, now she tries to limit the damage. “Yes, I made mistakes and the important thing for me is to learn from them and do better together in the future,” she said at the end of July. If she succeeds, she and her party could play what is probably the greatest trump card and move forward again in terms of content when it comes to climate policy.

Olaf Scholz (SPD)

Major mistakes? Nothing. It seems that the top Social Democrat is the most sovereign candidate for the Chancellery so far. Alone, the 63-year-old has not yet been able to capitalize on it. Although his personal polls have been growing for a few weeks, the party values ​​are by no means stepping side by side. According to the latest Forsa “trend barometer”, Scholz is in first place in the Chancellor question for the first time with 21 percent – the SPD, however, bobs around at 16 percent as only the third strongest force.

But anyone who thinks that the Vice Chancellor has toured the election campaign flawlessly is wrong. At the beginning of the summer, the Social Democrat drew attention to a problem that many voters associate with high-ranking politicians: lack of proximity to the people. Specifically, Scholz embarrassed himself by not knowing how much a liter of gasoline costs. It is quite possible that this will cost him a few votes in his party’s core electorate.

The biggest flaw of the hamburger, however, could be almost two decades ago. In 2003, as SPD general secretary, Scholz was one of the directors of Agenda 2010 – that could now lead to a credibility problem. But as long as Scholz can distinguish himself with a successful financial policy in the federal government and in the G20 as well as with a calm crisis policy, this could play a subordinate role. “While two are dismantling, the third stands out,” said the current SPD general secretary Lars Klingbeil recently, alluding to Scholz’s competition. The race for the Chancellery is now at least more open than at the beginning of the election year.

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