After Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz, the green candidate for chancellor met child reporters Pauline and Romeo from the Pro Sieben show “Late Night Berlin” – without any major mistakes. So the entertaining election campaign gag should have been used up.
Anyone who seriously wants to succeed Angela Merkel has to do a lot in the media election campaign: Trielle and other duels, “election arenas” and “Bundestag election shows”, sentence completion games and all kinds of interviews. These include those that are conducted by child reporters. In addition to those of the Kika show “logo”, which is aimed at children (and the AfD top candidate Tino Chrupalla with the demand for his favorite German poem got into a mess), the ProSieben children’s reporters Pauline and Romeo are causing a sensation. The two are on the road for the show “Late Night Berlin”, which, as the title suggests, is less geared towards children. At least Armin Laschet was obviously not aware of the war.
For the Union chancellor candidate, the two eleven-year-olds died last week of rather unfortunate media appearances – at least in the perception of the already Laschet-critical social media. The interview with SPD candidate Sc was also broadcast last week. Late in the evening, Nonnelena Baerbock’s appearance in Klaas Heufer running show. Does the Greens – the youngest candidate for Chancellor and mother of two daughters – have a better hand for dealing with child reporters?
Baerbock’s facial features only derail briefly
Yes, it can be said succinctly. Neither the announcement that the Greens “don’t find debts so bad”, nor the fact that Pauline of all people did not change her introductory question (“Why do you want to become Federal Chancellor?”), Although the format “Children ask Chancellor: inside”, got her out of the routine. For a moment, surprise could be read from her facial features at the not always childish tone of the questions. Then took the opportunity to name a few of the goals that they die with every appearance: In order to be able to “do a lot better”, she wants to become Chancellor, and to fight child poverty.
Child reporter Romeo does not seem to suffer from poverty. At least the 75 euros “pocket money” that Baerbock had brought with him in cash as a “gift” speak for this. The Greens did not make the mistake of accepting it. The longest thread of the nine-minute conversation then revolved around rising gasoline prices, the question of whether poor people will still be able to afford to drive a car in the future, and the wealth tax. Baerbock brought them into play and promised to equip schools better. And even if a slightly bored tone is part of the style of Pro Sieben’s children’s reporters, one could still get the impression that Pauline and Romeo were really not interested in these topics.
Like Laschet and Scholz, they did not touch the green one with kid gloves. But Baerbock has questions that aim in similar directions like “Is it your fault that the Greens are losing?” and “is it true that you made your resume cooler?” heard often enough in the meantime to confidently parry them in the appropriate tone of voice. In the end, everyone thought the interview was “cool”. However, Pauline and Romeo Baerbock’s offer to talk longer.
Does this election campaign forum bring new insights?
This interview is unlikely to make big waves in the networks. But it was more entertaining than the long-winded conversation that “Late Night Berlin” host Klaas Heufer-Umlauf had previously had with his studio guest, pop star Ed Sheeran.
At least it brings a fresh color to the 2021 very extensive, but also redundant media election campaign, especially if IF the children ask questions, the numerous adult politician interviewers would not die directly, so Armin Laschet “Is Maaßen a Nazi?” or Olaf Scholz “Is Putin a murderer?” ask.
The reactions were quite revealing, at least for the two men. Scholz demonstrated his ability to talk around difficult questions so confidently that at least in comparison with his current rivals it is more positive. Once more, lags behind in unexpected situations, or at least not ideally prepared. He or his team could at least die in the process. “Children ask rappers” interviews, in which Pauline and Romeo previously interviewed contemporaries such as Sido, can watch.
Of course, the child reporters cannot solve an increasingly obvious problem of the Bundestag election campaign in 2021, which is mainly geared towards entertaining: Almost everywhere it deals with similar questions, while similarly important topics such as foreign policy or specific aspects of digitization are excluded.
But that’s not the problem with the non-political private broadcaster Pro Sieben. Of course, child reporters are unlikely to have great long-term potential. As soon as the principle is known and everyone is arming themselves, it has been used up. That is in the nature of such gags or, as it is called in Pro Sieben jargon: “Pranks”.