Overview
- ZDF’s Maybrit Illner aired Thursday at 22:15 with the episode titled “Kein Aufschwung, kein Vertrauen – Zerreißprobe für Schwarz‑Rot?” featuring Reiner Haseloff, Alexander Schweitzer, Veronika Grimm and journalist Robin Alexander.
- Illner’s roundtable probed coalition fault lines over pension reform, the combustion‑engine phase‑out, the heating law and Bürgergeld under tight budget constraints.
- Markus Lanz followed at 23:15 with economists Andreas Peichl, Moritz Schularick and Rüdiger Bachmann, journalist Julia Löhr and author Harald Jähner dissecting weak growth, investment needs and technology gaps.
- Both broadcasts leaned on the Council of Economic Experts’ annual report diagnosing stagnation, missing investments and shrinking key industries.
- An FAZ review said the shows laid bare starkly divided policy prescriptions and argued the political center lacks a coherent reformist force, with episodes available in the ZDF‑Mediathek and Illner repeated on phoenix.