Contents
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Page 1 — Citizens complain, politicians respond
Page 2 – You have your say here
Louis Klamroth dedicated his first show to the protest in a new setting and with a new concept, that’s how it was Hard but fair created, and that’s how it happened. They met: a moderator, two entrepreneurs, three politicians from BSW, SPD and CDU (Sahra Wagenknecht, Carsten Schneider and Carsten Linnemann), plus a sociologist and an activist. The studio was full, even a little overcrowded – like the show.
In a rapid succession it was about tax increases, energy prices, climate money, citizens’ money, reductions in bureaucracy, a budget adjustment meeting, more civil servants in Berlin and less money for farmers, unannounced rally trips compared to criminal traffic obstructions, minimum wage, the top tax rate and higher taxes on financial income – and then again, what was it again? The viewers didn’t hear any big solutions or complex arguments; that wasn’t necessarily intended, the broadcast schedule was so tight. Delivered for that Hard but fair a panorama of current conflicts. In other words: the show measured the soul temperature of the middle class and transferred the heat into the studio.
Will Klamroth’s new concept be a success? It’s still too early to predict that. This also applies to Caren Miosga’s new ARD talk show, which started a week and a half ago, which in many respects tries to do the opposite of Klamroth and designs its show around a single guest. For the second edition last Sunday, Miosga met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In contrast, this was presented on Monday evening Hard but fair the citizens at the center. Frank Plasberg, who once coined the show, also used to let citizens speak, but usually only by reading out their audience mail (occasionally a citizen was interviewed live in an individual interview). And so the differences between Klamroth and Miosga’s variations of the talk show format and older ones are clearly visible.
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The guests at Hard but fair accurately depicted “the street” on Monday evening. Since the beginning of the year, a particularly large number of self-employed people and entrepreneurs have been protesting in the form of farmers (even if farmers in Germany are not primarily viewed as such), and now master hairdresser Zuhra Visnjic from Remscheid was able to appear on ARD talk in detail about their everyday needs. Following this, the digital entrepreneur Tijen Onaran from Berlin called for an economic policy awakening. And moderator Louis Klamroth himself interviewed several farmers at a demonstration and the results were recorded.
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In between, the politicians should also express themselves, but here came Hard but fair to its limits, the show had its weak moments. Because a right-wing dialogue didn’t want to arise, and considering the broadcast time of 75 minutes, there were a lot of guests sitting in the studio. In addition, it initially seemed as if a scene was being recreated in a pedestrian zone in which the hairdresser Visnjic one after the other came to the election campaign stand of the SPD, CDU and BSW to hear what the politicians were promising her.
SPD man Carsten Schneider, Federal Government Commissioner for East Germany, failed in his first mission; CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann immediately used the opportunity for a rhetorical elbow check; and Sahra Wagenknecht, new chairwoman of the party named after herself, would have liked to intervene, but was immediately interrupted by moderator Louis Klamroth as soon as she uttered a half-sentence that might not have stood up to a fact check.
After all, all three had their strong moments during the course of the show: Schneider, when he described the time crunch in which the controversial cuts to agriculture came about. Wagenknecht, when she was allowed to explain her already known ideas on tax policy (top tax rate only from 100,000 euros) and minimum wage (high to 14 euros). Linnemann said five points to give entrepreneurs more freedom. Among other things, he suggested exempting them from all reporting obligations for two years and only having the authorities carry out a few spot checks.
Louis Klamroth dedicated his first show to the protest in a new setting and with a new concept, that’s how it was Hard but fair created, and that’s how it happened. They met: a moderator, two entrepreneurs, three politicians from BSW, SPD and CDU (Sahra Wagenknecht, Carsten Schneider and Carsten Linnemann), plus a sociologist and an activist. The studio was full, even a little overcrowded – like the show.
In a rapid succession it was about tax increases, energy prices, climate money, citizens’ money, reductions in bureaucracy, a budget adjustment meeting, more civil servants in Berlin and less money for farmers, unannounced rally trips compared to criminal traffic obstructions, minimum wage, the top tax rate and higher taxes on financial income – and then again, what was it again? The viewers didn’t hear any big solutions or complex arguments; that wasn’t necessarily intended, the broadcast schedule was so tight. Delivered for that Hard but fair a panorama of current conflicts. In other words: the show measured the soul temperature of the middle class and transferred the heat into the studio.