Today, we will deal with the Impeachment investigation against Donald Trump, with the broadsides of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj against Angela Merkel and with questionable comments by FDP leader Christian Lindner.
The impeachment can start
JASON SCENES / EPA-EFE / REX
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Trio Infernal
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A majority of US House MPs are now supporting an impeachment investigation of US President Donald Trump: At least 217 of the 235 Democrats and one Republican are in favor, according to US media reports. But the impeachment investigation against the US president is dividing the country.
Indeed, after the publication of the transcript of a telephone conversation, there is no longer any doubt that Trump has called on the President of Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 presidential campaign . He asked him to "do him a favor" and investigate the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
It is also difficult to deny that Trump sounds like a mafia godfather in the conversation: he links the demand indirectly with the Ukrainian demand for military aid. And he calls on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj to work with US Attorney General William Barr (who was supposed to be independent of Trump).
All this is probably illegal, in addition to the complaint of a whistleblower from the intelligence apparatus, which raises even more, apparently serious allegations against Trump - the Democratic MP Adam Schiff described as "deeply disturbing". But the defenders of the president fire from all pipes. So much so that the White House accidentally sent their argument to defend Trump to Democratic Congressmen.
But at a time when political opponents can no longer even communicate on the facts, an impeachment is just as dangerous for Trump as it is for the Democrats : given the evidence, they are doing what they are required to do, but they can do so voters also fail. So far, a clear majority was against impeachment.
Will the information about Trump's behavior change that? What's happening in the US right now is the beginning of a dramatic presidential campaign that is no longer being fought by the usual means - and where not only the power, but also the truth and other core values of democracy are at stake. Nobody can say which side will win.
- Impeachment proceedings against Trump: "This is where an abuse of power takes place."
Boris rages in parliament
Jessica Taylor / House of Commons / DPA
On the other side of the Atlantic, it seems increasingly as if Boris Johnson wants to look away from Trump something: Although he has just been brutally rebuked by the Supreme Court, because he violated the Constitution, when he imposed a compulsory break Parliament - but Johnson switches on attack, the opposition calls for a vote of no confidence against him.
And when a Labor MP asks him for linguistic moderation and points to death threats against politicians against the backdrop of the country's heightened mood, the PM says, "I've never heard such a hoax in my life."
Johnson benefits from the opposition's reluctance to overthrow him even though she does have an anti-Johnson majority - but she can not agree who she should choose to be the new prime minister. In the worst case, they could even increase the chance of unregulated Brexit. And Johnson's popularity is still high: 41 percent of the British would like him as a premier.
- Unterhaus after compulsory break: Johnson's poisoned offer
Merkel and ungrateful Ukraine
FILIP SINGER / EPA-EFE / REX
Embarrassing is the Ukraine transcript not only for Trump, but also for the Ukrainian President Selenskyj: He slips into it unrestrained in Trump, tells him that he spent the night in New York in the Trump Tower and blasphemes about the European allies Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron .
After Trump says that Merkel is talking but does not do anything for Ukraine, Selenskyj replies, "Yes, you are absolutely right, not just 100 percent, but even 1000 percent, and I say this to you: I've talked to Angela Merkel and I also met Macron and talked to him, and I told them that they do not do as much as they should in terms of sanctions, they do not enforce sanctions, they do not work so much for Ukraine, as they would have to. " The EU, according to Selensky, should actually be the most important partner of Ukraine, but in truth that is the US.
That is true, but for Angela Merkel certainly still annoying to read. After all, their Ukraine policy has been the pride of German foreign policy . On Wednesday Selenskyj quickly pushed after that he thanked Merkel; Trump's call was made during a "difficult phase".
- Telephone conversation with Selenskyj: "She does not do anything", Trump blasphemes over Merkel's Ukraine policy
Netanyahu should get back
Sebastian Scheiner / AP
It is rather surprising news: Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister defeated in the elections, has been asked by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin to form a government. How come? The answer is tactics .
The actually victorious Benny Gantz of the Blue-White Alliance has given Netanyahu the lead, precisely because he does not have enough MPs to form a government. If Netanyahu fails as expected, his Likud party could rebuff the PM - and the way for Gantz would be to form a unity government with the rest of the Likud party, but without Netanyahu.
Is the calculus going? The country is facing tough weeks - and Netanyahu has already written off completely - it would be premature: after all, he is the grand master of the political game in Israel.
- Israel after the elections: Bye, Bibi
We are giving away tickets ...
Namely ... for the "SPIEGEL Live" event next Monday in Berlin, which is about the AfD and their election results in Brandenburg and Saxony - and an outlook on the upcoming election in Thuringia . The questions are: Can one deduce a tendency for the whole of Germany from the election result of the AfD? What does this development mean for the party system and democracy? How much is Germany moving to the right? And do the established parties have the right ideas to stop this trend?
This is discussed by Gesine Schwan, chair of the SPD's Basic Value Commission, Heike Kleffner, author, and Werner J. Patzelt, political scientist. The event will be moderated by my colleague Melanie Amann, director of the SPIEGEL Capital Office. It will take place on September 30 at 7 pm in the Hall of Mirrors in Clark's Ballhaus. If you would like to attend the event, send an e-mail to my colleague Julia Parker (julia.parker@spiegel.de) until 5 pm today. We are giving away guest list places . Otherwise, there are tickets at the box office or on our event page www.spiegel-live.de.
Loser of the day ... ...
John MACDOUGALL / AFP
... is FDP leader Christian Lindner. In the "FAZ" today he says the sentence: "We will not save the planet by implementing a Morgenthau plan for Germany and make the Germans vegan cyclists." What was the Morgenthau plan again? In August 1944, the then US Treasury Secretary drafted a plan to transform Germany into an agrarian state following an Allied victory so that the Germans would never again wage a war of aggression.
The plan was then published by an indiscretion in the US, but he was rejected by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was never followed up - he became known, above all, because the Nazi propaganda used the draft as alleged evidence that a "world Jewry "strive for the" enslavement of Germany ". So much for that, back to Christian Lindner's sentence. My Opinion: No liberal speaks like that, so speaks a demagogue who has lost every measure.
The compact news overview in the morning: current and opinionated. Every morning (weekdays) at 6 o'clock. Order directly here:
The latest news from the night
- "Everything they do is talk." With these words, US President Trump has criticized the German Ukraine policy. In fact, Germany helped Ukraine with nearly 1.4 billion euros since 2014
- Derailment in the British Parliament : Boris Johnson desperately trying to defend his Brexit course. He was now playing on the killed politician Jo Cox - her widower was clear
- Canada's Greens boss has to explain himself after Photoshop breakdown : A photo shows them with a recyclable cup with a metal straw in his hand. Now it turns out - the picture has been edited
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- I wish you a nice start to the day.
Your Mathieu von Rohr