TV column - Markus Lanz clashes with Ramelow: "If you take note: I am here"

It was the “biggest comeback since Lazarus,” said Markus Lanz, describing the election result of the Left Party: The party around “Silverlock” Bodo Ramelow gained around 3.9 percentage points in the federal election.

"She did not enter into a competition to outdo each other: who deports more harshly, who keeps people away more, who builds the biggest deportation prisons?", "taz" journalist Anna Lehmann summed up "the key to success" on Markus Lanz on Wednesday evening: "She focused on issues that people are interested in: more money for infrastructure, redistribution, affordable housing, affordable rents, affordable living - and she succeeded in doing so."

"The Left is very lucky that the zeitgeist has been voted in their direction," said Wolfgang Kubicki of the FDP, offering another explanation. The election of US President Trump has led to latent anti-Americanism and a turning away from oligarchs.

"If you're aware: I'm here," Bodo Ramelow interrupted the two's analyses, "you're starting to talk about the Left over my head. But not to me," he said indignantly, clearly feeling ignored by Markus Lanz. He, in turn, no longer understood the world ("Don't be angry with me, I haven't done anything to you!"), but after several attempts had to accept: "You don't want to understand me today."

The moderator was right...

Due to the shift in the balance of power, both the AfD and the Left have a blocking minority in the new Bundestag and can therefore prevent decisions. "It is a great honor for me to be clear that a two-thirds majority can only be achieved if we are discussed with one another," said Ramelow happily. However, this requires "that the CDU has to think about who it wants to talk to," he said, referring to the incompatibility resolution that the CDU had made against the Left in the run-up to the Bundestag election. "Either we are taken seriously as democrats" - in which case he would be willing to talk, but: "As long as the incompatibility resolution exists, there will be no talks with the Left."

"These are red lines that are being drawn here," commented political expert Kerstin Münstermann from the "Rheinische Post". She also considered the CDU's decision to be a mistake. One that clearly affected the Thuringian politician, as Markus Lanz noted: "Wow, you've hit the nail on the head, an old trauma is surfacing," he said, amazed at Ramelow's vehemence.

Lanz wanted to know whether the Left would not agree to the special fund - keyword external security - without repealing the incompatibility resolution. "You don't want an answer, you want to make a fool of me," Ramelow accused the moderator. "You are not sitting in my head, I still live there myself," Lanz rejected the insinuation, "I wanted to know something else, you know that very well."

"I don't know, I'm not in your head," Ramlow countered. He refused to give fictitious answers to fictitious questions - but he didn't want to rule anything out. Instead, he repeatedly called for an agreement between all democratic parties that none would work with the AfD. "Then you have the joker in your hand," FDP vice-chairman Wolfgang Kubicki summed it up.

The FDP politician can only dream of such a position of power: "The FDP is like the Titanic that is sinking (...) and there is no one left on board," summed up Anna Lehmann and asked the all-important question: "Who will pull the cart out of the mud?"

Wolfgang Kubicki was also unable to provide an answer to this question. "I know that I am not the future of the party," admitted the 72-year-old. However, like Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, he is confident that he can moderate the transition. From a human perspective, he can understand why Christian Lindner has resigned: "On Monday, all the deputy parliamentary group leaders except me suddenly announced that they were no longer involved. All the people who I thought would shape the future of this party announced that, unfortunately, they were no longer involved because they wanted to find a new career. What should a party expect, what should happen other than chaos breaking out?"

The fact that he is putting himself in front of Lindner is nice. "But I think it is extremely irresponsible," Lehmann saw it differently: "I think that reflects what the FDP has demonstrated: It has not become the party of personal responsibility, but the party of self-interest - and that is the problem." The FDP has taken a course towards becoming a clientele party for the rich and has failed because of itself.

"All three (government parties, editor's note) have lost," Kubicki was not going to accept that. The traffic light coalition was the least popular government. "So the whole drama was worth it for you?" Lehmann interjected. Kubicki tried to explain that he himself would have left the government much earlier.

When he added that the D-Day document should have been handled differently, Markus Lanz had had enough: "Mr. Kubicki, excuse me: you tried to make it look as if you were being thrown out by the others. You tried to blame it on the others: we were the victims. And - that was the second most important part of the story - we are doing it for Germany." And, Lanz made clear, "nobody believed you."