German Poll Bets For PM Clash Over Money Scandals

The conservative candidate to be the next German chancellor, Armin Laschet, used a live television debate on Sunday to attack his main rival Olaf Scholz over a series of financial scandals, with just two weeks to go before the country votes.

Photo Insert: Polls by broadcasters ARD and ZDF showed Scholz came out ahead in the debate and was seen as more convincing and more competent

Laschet from the Christian Democrats (CDU) is trailing Social Democrat (SPD) Scholz by several points in the polls and is hoping to push his center-right bloc's numbers back up from historic lows after a disastrous slide in recent weeks.

"If my finance minister worked the way you do, then we would have had a big problem," Laschet said in one of his more stinging jabs at Scholz during the second of three televised debates ahead of the elections on September 26.

Laschet cited last week's raid targeting Finance Ministry offices, the massive Wirecard fraud and bankruptcy, and the Cum-Ex tax scandal as examples where he argued Scholz had not fulfilled his duties as finance minister.

Scholz hit back, saying that "with your questions, we see how dishonest you are," and argued that he had in fact improved the ministry's oversight capabilities. Some of the events in the Cum-Ex scandal occurred years before he assumed control of the Finance Ministry in 2018, Scholz said correctly.

However, Scholz has in the past had to answer questions in parliament about his relationship with Christian Olearius, co-owner of the Warburg Bank in Hamburg which was at the center of the tax scandal.

Polls by broadcasters ARD and ZDF showed Scholz came out ahead in the debate and was seen as more convincing and more competent. The Infratest-Dimap and Forschungsgruppe institutes both put Scholz as the overall winner.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC