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The situation on Thursday: Is Angela Merkel still Chancellor?

2019-10-31T04:19:44.793Z


today we are talking about the absent Angela Merkel, the protests in Chile and Iraq, as well as an event that fortunately does not happen today: the Brexit. Merkel is very, very far away While her party, the CDU, ...



today we are talking about the absent Angela Merkel, the protests in Chile and Iraq, as well as an event that fortunately does not happen today: the Brexit.

Merkel is very, very far away

FILIP SINGER / EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock

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While her party, the CDU, is mauling and in deep crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is boarding a plane today and traveling to India. Foreign policy seems to be the only thing that Merkel still cares about in these late days of her chancellorship.

She is silent about the uproar in her party. She neither defends nor criticizes her wish-successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer , and keeps her attacks on her own ranks just as silly. The chancellor now hovers so high above the everyday things that she hardly exists as a ruler. It does not really matter if she's in India or at the Chancellery, because she's denying the country the leadership it needs now and then. What's going on around Merz, AKK, Koch and how they all happen to be just that, it just pisses off on her.

Of course, it is a bit strange to live in a country whose head of government only symbolizes itself, as it were, as it were, as a monument to itself. Angela Merkel is a world star, but is she still Chancellor?

Protests in Chile, Iraq and Lebanon

Marwan Naamani / DPA

We live in days of protest. In Chile, Lebanon and Iraq, people have been taking to the streets for weeks, and everywhere the demands are similar: they are directed against corruption and inequality. It has rarely been as easy to organize protests as in our time, but they are not always effective.

This is different in the three countries mentioned. The Lebanese prime minister has already resigned, and in Iraq the replacement is apparently imminent - and in Chile, the government was even forced to cancel the hosting of the World Climate Change Conference in December and the Asia-Pacific Summit in November.

  • Canceled UN climate summit: Who will take over for Chile?

Rebellion against inequality

Edgard Garrido / REUTERS

The protests in Chile began weeks ago with protests against price increases in public transport, but now it's about much more - many protesters call for a fundamental system change. The fact that the government first sent the army onto the streets aroused bad memories of the military dictatorship, now even the almost complete replacement of the cabinet did not soothe the demonstrators.

This week I saw the Chilean writer Isabel Allende at an event in Hamburg. She explained the protests as follows: "It is not an ideological protest, but the anger of people who do not understand why such inequality reigns in a country as prosperous as Chile. And indeed, the protests touch something very deep-seated. It is not even said that they would end when President Sebastián Piñera resigned.

  • Social protest in Chile: Piñera announces surprisingly reforms

No Brexit

Tolga AKMEN / AFP

Also noteworthy is what does not happen today: the Brexit. He does not take place today, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would rather be dead in the ditch than apply for another extension . There are now known elections on 12 December and another, supposedly immovable Brexit appointment: the 31 January.

  • Britain's Premier and New Elections Plan: Ten Years Johnson?

Story of the day

Jerome Bonnet / THE MIRROR

Not only do we want to force psychologists to think positive, says the Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz - unlike in international surveys is repeatedly claimed that happiness can not measure. It has become a commodity, she says in an interview with my colleague Kerstin Kullmann.

  • Sociologist Eva Illouz on the happy delusion: "Happiness became a commodity"

Loser of the day ...

Michaela Rehle / REUTERS

... is Franz Beckenbauer. Did he receive millions of euros to vote for the award of the World Cup to Russia? This is suggested by leaked emails published by a Russian website.

And finally a SPIEGEL event tip

The peaceful revolution of 1989 is one of the great moments of German history. Why do we look now, 30 years later, with so much suspicion, disappointment, yes, hostility from east to west, from west to east? Marianne Birthler , 11 years Federal Commissioner for the documents of the State Security Service, and the writer Ingo Schulze talk on 5 November in Hamburg Thalia Theater on these issues with the SPIEGEL author Susanne Beyer. Tickets are here.

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

  • US release footage of action against IS leader Baghdadi: The Pentagon showed footage of the military action in Syria for the first time. In addition, General Kenneth McKenzie called further details about the operation
  • Twitter bans political advertising ahead of the US presidential election in 2020: This distinguishes Facebook's short message service. The social network, in turn, is under pressure for data scandals and dealing with hate comments - but business is still going strong
  • Olaf Scholz takes Angela Merkel in protection: As underachieving and idle Friedrich Merz had criticized the Chancellor. This is "inappropriate," says the SPD politician - and affirms that he does not want another grand coalition

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

  • Pellworm organic farmers: why we sue the government for climate change?
  • Funding programs and tax benefits: A climate policy that benefits the rich
  • Weimar Republic: "Murder was a means of politics for right-wing terrorists"
  • Dangerous misdiagnosis in elderly patients: When doctors are wrong
  • Eco-Symbol Policy: What does a plastic bag ban really do?

For today I wish you either a pleasant working day, a beautiful Reformation or Happy Halloween!

cordially
Your Mathieu von Rohr

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-10-31

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