today we are dealing with the return of the Chancellor to the politically poisoned Berlin, with the renewed friendship of Martin Schulz and Olaf Scholz and with the freedom of expression, which is doing quite well, which some see differently.
Merkel's toxic mixture
Michael Kappeler / DPA
More in the SPIEGEL
Issue 45/2019
freedom of speech
About real and perceived boundaries of the wordDigital Edition | Printed issues | Apps | SUBSCRIPTION
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently still in the toxic smog of the Indian capital Delhi , the city with the world's worst air quality. The city had become a "gas chamber" tweeted yesterday the head of government of the city and announced that the schools were closed until 5 November. He also had five million gas masks distributed.
The smog was exacerbated by many people burning down fireworks during the Hindu Festival of Light Diwali . The Chancellor flies back to Berlin this morning, where the air quality is significantly better - but the political climate is poisoned.
Frustration with Merkel and party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is growing in the CDU. This is what my colleagues in the current SPIEGEL describe: "My hope was that the double Kramp-Karrenbauer with Merkel would bring us as a party strong forward," says the CDU Interior Expert Armin Schuster. "That did not work, unfortunately." On the one hand, the party suffers from a leadership vacuum. On the other side, there are ambitious wannabe chancellor candidates and political pensioners, who are concerned about themselves. A pretty toxic mixture.
Also read the SPIEGEL editorial . "It's time for new elections," writes Dirk Kurbjuweit. He compares the CDU with a house of madness and judges: "With a Chancellor at the end of their era" are no more risers possible.
- End of the era Merkel: It's time for new elections
Schulz and Scholz are friends again
Daniel Reinhardt / DPA
We switch briefly to the former People's Party SPD, which is also looking around for a new leadership - but officially. Here comes in the new SPIEGEL to a rather interesting demonstrative reconciliation, which is certainly synonymous tactical nature: ex-SPD leader Martin Schulz strengthens in the fight for party chairmanship of Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz 's back, although Zweiterer has been instrumental in abrogating the former.
I recommend the conversation because it has its exciting moments. Schulz says quite frankly to Scholz that he should be a little bit more enthusiastic: "Olaf, I would like you to leave the vice-chancellor in the vice-chancellery! (...) You have to show people that passion burns in you, us again to bring forward. " Then Scholz says the remarkable sentence: "... I am pleased, of course, that you have already experienced me inspiring." That could almost be Scholz's official campaign slogan.
- Reconciliation talk by Martin Schulz and Vice-Chancellor Scholz: "Olaf, I would like to tell you something"
One will still be allowed to say that
Stefan Rampfel / DPA
Quite a lot of Germans think that one has to "pay close attention these days to which topics one expresses oneself": According to a much-cited survey, almost two-thirds think so. It is quite paradoxical that many people see freedom of expression as threatened, while at the same time it has never been so easy to spread their opinions over a large area - and at the same time to be socially acceptable to views that for decades have been more secretive.
Does it have something to do with the extremely polarized society? And maybe it has something to do with the fact that many people can not stand it when they voice their opinions, but they also criticize them? And is it perhaps also because the social balance of power is shifting, and those groups that would have shut up a few years ago with a stupid spell now simply shoot back?
These are very interesting questions that my colleagues negotiate in the current SPIEGEL cover story "on the real and perceived limits of the word".
- Freedom of expression in Germany: Why tough discussions are exhausting, but correct
Story of the day
Andrew Harnik / AP
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the Islamic State, was the world's most wanted terrorist. Until US elite soldiers put him. SPIEGEL reporter Christoph Reuter, who has not only been in Syria for many years, but also wrote an excellent book about the origins of the IS, reconstructs the hunt for the self-proclaimed caliph - and clarifies the question: what will become of the terror state? ?
Winner of the day ...
Daniel Karmann / DPA
... is Benigna Munsi , a student of the Nürnberger Labenwolf-Gymnasium. She was chosen by a 15-member jury to the Nuremberg "Christ Child" and was very happy about it, as you see in pictures: Then she jumps laughing into the air. She is now allowed to represent the city of Nuremberg and, among other things, open the Nuremberg Christmas Market. All good? Not quite.
The 17-year-old native of Nuremberg has brown hair, a German mother and an Indian father. The AfD state association Munich country offended the youngsters - apparently because of their name and their hair color - on Twitter: Actually, the Christ child in pictures "always only golden hair" grumbled the account operator and whispered later, the German population will be " as the Indians "fare. The racist ideology of parts of this party could not have been clearer. And a better Christkind could not have wished Nuremberg.
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
- Cem Özdemir apparently received a concrete murder threat: His name is high on a death list, according to a report, according to an email to the Green politician. Senders should therefore be right-wing extremists
- Britain stops fracking: The British government has suspended its controversial gas extraction technology with immediate effect. The reason for the fracking moratorium is a series of earthquakes
- New details on the truck body finding in Essex : The British police suspect meanwhile that all 39 fatalities come from Viet Nam. In that case, there were more arrests
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
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I wish you a nice weekend!
cordially
Your Mathieu von Rohr
