Today we are dealing with climate change among the Social Democrats, the election in Austria and the question of whether Donald Trump will actually overthrow.
Things are getting tight for Trump
Kevin Lamarque / REUTERS
More in the SPIEGEL
Issue 40/2019
The deal too much
Why the Ukraine Affair Donald Trump can cost the postDigital Edition | Printed issues | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
In the successful political series "Donald Trump against the rest of reason" yesterday ran another exciting episode. More and more disturbing details about his behavior towards the Ukrainian president are known. More and more officials are at a distance from him.
But what you should not forget: Trump still has faithful supporters. The Republicans have surrendered to his prosperity. The fact that they betray the values of their old and once proud party every day does not seem to matter.
Even more important are the millions of US citizens who are more and more unconditionally in favor of their president, the more aggressively the Democrats attack him. In the 2016 pre-election campaign, Trump once said, "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot someone, and I would not lose a voter."
My colleagues, who researched in the US, Russia and Ukraine, describe the "Trump affair" in a cover story with all its details and come to the conclusion that his recent offense may have been one too many.
In Germany Trump - apart from small valleys of the ignorant times - similar down through as on the US East Coast. If you want to get really melancholic again, you should go to Munich tomorrow. There Trump's predecessor Barack Obama gives the opening speech at the founders fair "Bits & Pretzels". That sounds a bit sad, though.
- SPIEGEL cover story to Trump: The one deal too much
Climate change in the SPD
Moritz Frankenberg / DPA
After a four-day break, the SPD is back in self-employment mode . Yesterday evening, the seven candidate couples presented themselves at the party chairmanship at a regional conference in the city hall of Brunswick. This morning we continue in Kamen, tomorrow in Troisdorf. You can not blame the Social Democratic combo, it would only play in the big halls. That fits in with the latest polls.
My colleagues in the current issue of SPIEGEL describe that the applicants are not quite as harmonious as they are pretended to be on stage.
Even more disturbing, however, are the numbers published by the research group Elections yesterday. According to their survey, the SPD falls to 13 percent, even landing behind the AfD. The big winners are the Greens, which are 27 percent on par with the weakening Union.
A majority of SPD supporters consider the Grand Coalition's climate plan a disappointment, while the party's leaders continue to believe they've achieved something big. That could explain a lot.
- Split SPD: Why Ralf Stegner and Kevin Kühnert do not talk anymore
Vienna to Ibiza
Leonhard Foeger / REUTERS
Tomorrow the Austrians will vote for their National Council. After the Ibiza affair, over which the coalition of the ÖVP and FPÖ broke up and new elections became necessary, a hot campaign could have been expected. But the most striking thing was what at least the big parties did not want to talk about: Ibiza and all the questions the affair posed. Was Heinz-Christian Strache , the vice-chancellor of the FPÖ, who let himself be tempted by a supposed oligarch into corrupt statements, only an isolated case? Or does Austrian politics have a deeper problem? About corruption, party funding, the independence of the media, in short, on the big, democratically relevant issues, ÖVP and FPÖ did not want to talk. Not even the Social Democrats.
So it may well be that Sebastian Kurz is elected again tomorrow strong man of Austria and everything stays as it is - including a new edition of the coalition with the right-wing populists. For Sebastian Kurz, who has never stood in the way of principles in his career, has not explicitly excluded that.
- Austria's ex-chancellor before the comeback: The brutally friendly Mr. Kurz
Story of the day
Martin OUELLET-DIOTTE / AFP
The number of Griesgrams in Germany, which Greta Thunberg consider more dangerous than the findings of climate research , has risen rapidly in recent days. This was also due to Thunberg's speech to the United Nations, in which she not only looked very angry, but even dared, "How dare you?" to say, "How dare you?" This refers to the heads of state and government, who considered climate policy so far at best as a weekend task.
My colleague Philipp Oehmke has accompanied Thunberg since she arrived in America four weeks ago. "Thunberg is also described as crazy by her critics because of her Asperger diagnosis ," Oehmke concludes. "But crazy are those who want to continue to do nothing about climate change."
- With Greta Thunberg through America: How dare she?
Winners of the day ...
DOMENIC AQUILINA / EPA-EFE / REX
... is Horst Seehofer. Even in the summer of 2018 Seehofer could not rush enough against refugees. His insistence on refusing refugees at the German border in the future would almost have blown up the governing coalition - and the union of CDU and CSU on top of that.
About Angela Merkel he spoke these days as the "person who I have helped in the saddle". Meanwhile, he says about Merkel that only great people could solve the problems of our time. "And Angela Merkel is such a great person." At the same time he fights for the admission from distress rescued refugees.
His party friends hardly recognize Seehofer again. Many are irritated, some disappointed by their eyrie. But they do not have to be. Seehofer proves that radical changes within a few months are still possible even at an advanced age. And that is good news for humanity.
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
- Donald Trump loses his Special Representative for Ukraine: Kurt Volker has surprisingly resigned from his post - the day before he was in connection with the complaint of a whistleblower from the intelligence service has been called
- The British Prime Minister Seeking Penalties : Did Boris Johnson in his time as London Mayor a friendly business woman from the United States preferred? An official authority is now dealing with this question
- Ruth Chepngetich wins the slowest World Cup marathon : The World Athletics Championships has a problem with the heat of the desert in Qatar - that was evident in the women's marathon
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
- Flatter Trump, insult Merkel: How is the Federal Government responding to Ukraine's President Selenskyj?
- Block or join climate package? The strategic dilemma of the Greens
- Brexit negotiations: How Europeans and British fight for a last-minute deal
- After the Thomas Cook bankruptcy: The takeover poker to Condor begins
I wish you a merry Saturday
Your Markus Feldenkirchen