BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and his most promising challenger, CDU/CSU parliamentary party leader Friedrich Merz (CDU), will face each other in several TV debates during the Bundestag election campaign. ARD and ZDF want to pit them against each other on February 9. RTL invites viewers on February 16 - "for the final and decisive exchange of blows" between the two.

The public duel - two weeks before the election, 90 minutes live simultaneously on the first and second channels - will be hosted by Sandra Maischberger (ARD) and Maybrit Illner (ZDF). The RTL, ntv and "Stern" edition - one week before the election - will be hosted by Pinar Atalay and Günther Jauch.

In addition to "Das Duell - Scholz gegen Merz", another duel is planned jointly by ARD and ZDF, with Robert Habeck (Greens) and Alice Weidel (AfD) in demand, the public broadcasters announced. RTL also announced that it is "currently in talks" with the chancellor and leading candidates of the other parties about further duel combinations.

Greens criticize ARD and ZDF

Green Party parliamentary group leaders Britta Haßelmann and Katharina Droge criticized the planned TV duel solely between the candidates Scholz and Merz. "The days of the two major parties are over. Everyone knows that. The public broadcaster doesn't yet?", wrote Haßelmann on Platform X. "In 2021, we still had several TV trials as a matter of course - now they're switching to SPD:CDU. That doesn't reflect our country." Droge wrote: "Tell me Das Erste and ZDF, are they really serious?

To invite only SPD & CDU?

With friendly support back to the GroKo?"

In addition to the CDU/CSU, SPD, Greens and AfD, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance also announced on Monday evening that it would nominate the party founder and leading candidate as its candidate for chancellor "so that our competitors do not gain an unfair advantage", as Secretary General Christian Leye told the German Press Agency. This probably means, among other things, that only leading candidates dubbed as chancellor candidates could be invited to the television rounds./bok/DP/ngu