Thread by @DougSaunders

All of tonight's German election debate so far has been devoted to the question of which parties you would or wouldn't form a coalition with. And really, it's the underlying question of the whole thing

Laschet: Finger-wagging and indignant. Scholz: Bemused and unflappable. Baerbock: Smiling and collegial

If you'd like to watch it with english translation:

Good exchange about flaky party candidates. Laschet is asked about a far-right conspiracy theorist in CDU; he answers nothing can be done, we don't control members. Baerbock asked about a racist in the Greens; says she told him to apologize and when he didn't she had him sacked

Laschet refuses to say that vaccination should be required, even for specific professions (62% of the German population is fully vaccinated). Baerbock says yes at least for some jobs eg teachers. Scholz against mandates but for "persuading" (substantially same as Laschet)

Finally a question about why the internet and broadband are so crappy in Germany!

(Two of the candidates are leaders of parties in the government that oversaw the failure to de-crappify German internet... they don't have much to say)

Scholz, the Social Democrat and ex Hamburg mayor, is by far the winner among the 3 candidates to replace Merkel in all the network polls.

While he evaded a lot, he showed that simply keeping your cool and not appearing rattled, Merkel-style, goes far

https://twitter.com/mtwirth/status/1437143994291658760?s=20

I have previously declared my bias re Olaf Scholz: I knew him and sometimes engaged with him when he was premier of Hamburg, and was generally impressed by his urban and European-fiscal ideas
(his foreign-policy views are much more of a mystery)

This is a good summary. It was a very pleasant debate to watch! Three adults having a fairly full and comprehensive argument, including some accusations, and allowing one another to respond fully without need for moderator interventions. More of this

https://twitter.com/JeremyCliffe/status/1437142900744376326?s=20