Today we are dealing with the urgently needed attempts at clarification by the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, the new solidarity in times of Corona and the latest election campaign (not) popular from the CSU.
Scholz's triple
Today is Olaf Scholz's
holiday of democracy
.
Because the vice chancellor and finance minister has to answer questions from parliamentarians three times a day about his role in financial scandals.
It begins in the morning with the finance committee on the
cum-ex deals of
the Hamburg private bank Warburg
.
First trick.
The second follows immediately: A government survey is scheduled in the plenum at lunchtime, Scholz will probably also have to comment on his role in the accounting scandal at the scandalous company Wirecard.
In the afternoon it continues in the plenary session of the Bundestag, the left has requested a current hour on the cum-ex topic.
Third trick.
For Scholz's
candidacy for chancellor
, that's all: not that sparkling.
Olaf Scholz: Chancellor candidate with financial problems
Hard ride in the election campaign
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Olaf Scholz
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / DPA
In particular, the link to cum-ex deals is toxic to a Social Democrat.
"Süddeutsche Zeitung", "Zeit" and "NDR" had reported that Scholz had met with Warburg co-owner Christian Olearius more often than he had previously admitted.
At the time, there were investigations against the bank and Olearius on
suspicion of serious tax evasion
.
There is no evidence that Scholz, as the then First Mayor of Hamburg, had any influence on the fact that the tax authorities did not reclaim from the bank inadmissible tax refunds amounting to 47 million euros.
But the whole thing is extremely sticky.
Because with cum-ex scammers, we're not talking about people who use windy methods to save taxes;
but about
guys who rob the state
.
In these cum-ex deals, banks and investors trick the government into reimbursing a one-time capital gains tax on dividends several times over.
So many billions of euros have been stolen from the state.
Perfidious and lousy.
When my colleague Lydia Rosenfelder and colleagues Dirk Kurbjuweit and Christian Teevs asked the newly nominated candidate Scholz in an interview with SPIEGEL in mid-August whether he was worried about the long haul that lies ahead of him until the election in more than a year , he replied:
"It's
going to
be a tough ride."
It will take some time before the other parties present a candidate.
The SPD will use the time to calmly prepare its own campaign.
So spoke Scholz.
The rest is over for now.
In a SPIEGEL survey, more than 80 percent of Germans demand that Scholz should provide more detailed information on the Cum-Ex affair than before.
Today in front of Parliament he can try to redeem it.
SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz: "It will be a tough ride"
We and Corona
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People with masks at Berlin S-Bahn station (symbol picture)
Photo: snapshot-photography / T.Seeliger / imago images / Seeliger
The other day, during the corona test, I admired the organizational skills of a small family doctor's practice in Berlin.
If you want to be tested, you don't have to enter the building, but log on to a window outside and the doctor waits at the next window ledge with a cotton swab to swab your throat.
Zack, done, result within 36 hours.
Throat swabs every day, hundreds, thousands.
People stand in line down the street.
It is these people, medical assistants, who have to be role models for us in the corona crisis.
They are creative, they just do.
These people do service to society, they enrich.
What a contrast to the cum-ex gangsters, see above, who rob society.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
, the Federal President, is meeting Corona helpers in Dresden today - people who are particularly committed during this pandemic.
Whatever the place.
At the same time, a debate about commemorating the corona victims has started in the last few days.
Originally also initiated by Steinmeier, Health Minister Jens Spahn adapted this idea.
He even thinks a state act is conceivable.
However such a remembrance of the 9400 deceased would ultimately take shape: it would make sense.
As a moment to pause, as a renewed reflection on the best instrument to date in the fight against the virus:
solidarity
.
Because the longer this crisis lasts, the more this mutual consideration, the standing up for one another, wears off.
The ego grow larger, the larger us smaller.
In a democracy, the rules of the government are ultimately not decisive in the fight against Corona.
It's the attitude of the people.
In a functioning society of citizens is
common sense
more powerful than any government sanction.
Sociologist on crisis phenomenon: does Corona strengthen cohesion in society?
Loser of the day ...
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CSU flags (archive image)
Photo: Daniel Karmann / picture alliance / dpa
... is the
CSU
.
Before the car summit of government and industry representatives yesterday evening, the Christian Socials agitated for a purchase bonus for diesel and gasoline engines.
As expected, this wish did not play a role at the summit, because not only the SPD but also the Chancellor are against it.
In recent years, the CSU has now mastered the challenge of demanding something that is ultimately not implemented.
Do you remember the
commuter allowance
?
Merkel was against it.
Or the
upper limit
for refugees?
Merkel was against it.
Or the
bonus for mothers who do not work
?
Stopped by the Federal Constitutional Court.
Or the
foreigner's toll
?
Stopped by the European Court of Justice.
And now the purchase premium for diesel and petrol.
Well,
one of them already knew better.
They should have listened to him at the CSU.
A SPIEGEL report from March 2007 had the following headline: "CSU General Secretary Söder calls for a ban on cars with internal combustion engines from 2020."
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Autistic child shot down by US police:
According to his mother, he suffered from separation fears: A 13-year-old was seriously injured in a police operation in Salt Lake City.
The suspected weapon was not found on the boy
"Keeping Up With The Kardashians" is discontinued:
Since 2007 the Kardashian-Jenner clan has been providing deep insights into family life.
Now Kim Kardashian announced the end of the reality show on Instagram
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I wish you a good day.
Your Sebastian Fischer
