Chancellor in a carnival mood?
Yesterday she went as a virologist.
Moderator Claus Kleber interviews Barack Obama, moderator Mariette Slomka interviews Angela Merkel - the ZDF “Heute Journal” has just got off to a good start with the acceptance of high-ranking guests.
But in the moderation of his interview, Kleber confessed confidently that his guest Obama now mainly wanted to advertise his own book, and that the Chancellor did not answer Slomka's questions out of joy yesterday goes without saying: Angela Merkel enjoys interviews as much as he does with Vladimir Putin's tall dogs.
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Merkel, Slomka in an interview with ZDF
Photo: Guido Bergmann / GERMAN GOVERNMENT HANDOUT / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
Of course, the
Chancellor
knows
that her government has - at least -
one communication
problem.
The local population sees that the renegade British can vaccinate faster than the EU countries and are currently asking very fundamental questions about what is actually going on with their own government.
If the Chancellor wanted to make her politics more understanding with her television appearance yesterday, she has missed this chance.
Hadn't anyone told her before that although it was Carnival time, nobody expected her to slip into another role?
In any case, as so often lately, she seemed more like a self-made virologist who has to convey incidence values and deadlines than as head of government.
Yes, it has also declared its policy, but it has hardly responded to criticism of the population at this policy.
The vigilant Marietta Slomka tried everything to get the Chancellor to where the left-wing politician Dietmar Bartsch wanted to bring her in the Bundestag the day before yesterday:
to look at yourself and your own actions with more self-criticism
.
At some point the Chancellor let it be known once again that she was too hesitant about the ministerial presidents' round in the autumn - but she supported that, she emphasized.
But this was only a superficial admission.
Actually, she made it clear again that she just knew better.
My colleague Melanie Amann and my colleague Martin Knobbe wrote a piece about Merkel in the new SPIEGEL.
At the end they quote a prime minister.
He says: "Merkel knows
that the history books are just being rewritten
."
Link to the text
"Mask on - Nazis out" - a new variant of the Dresden Memorial Day
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Ruins of Dresden after the bombing in February 1945
Photo: dpa
Today is the
76th anniversary of the destruction of Dresden
.
It is complicated with this memorial day: The bombs of Allied forces were
dropped on Dresden's city center
on
February 13, 1945 in
order to finally get the population of Nazi Germany to give up.
Now, year after year,
neo-Nazis
march
to Dresden to mourn the fall of their »Third Reich«.
Apart from that, it is sometimes not clear enough on these commemorative days that it was the Germans' fault that is why all of this happened 76 years ago.
Because of all this mess, there are always voices who don't want to know anything about the whole Dresden mourning.
But in this challenging and stressful and yet wonderful city, it has often been possible to find a form of mourning that includes knowledge of the origin of the disaster - a mourning whose center is the confession of guilt.
Dresden is a city in which history can always be grasped, but in which it also presents itself again and again.
The rally "Mask on - Nazis out" is planned for 1pm today.
Air raids on Dresden: How the bombs saved my mother from the concentration camp
Republicans defiance and insight
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Trump's defender van der Veen
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Yesterday the
impeachment proceedings against ex-President Donald Trump
in the US Senate for "inciting riot" continued.
In the previous days, the prosecution had the floor, yesterday the defense advanced their arguments.
Trump defense attorney Michael van der Veen said at the beginning of his plea that the Democrats' claims that Trump had incited the demonstrators were "an absurd and monstrous lie."
The process is unconstitutional because Trump has already left office.
The back and forth of these days would not have been necessary if a few Republicans had earlier had the insight that their partisan and former American UN ambassador Nikki Haley now summed up - too late -: "He came up with a path one he shouldn't have gone and we shouldn't have followed him "
"We shouldn't have followed him": Ex-Ambassador Haley settles accounts with Trump
Impeachment process: Trump can hope for an acquittal
Mini-series »New Again«
Corona has had us under control for almost a year, which is why I closed this week's Morning Briefings with a mini-series instead of the “Winner / Loser of the Day” section:
“New again”.
Every day I asked what we had come to
appreciate again
in this long state of emergency
- and not on a large scale, but in everyday life.
This question, I have always noted at this point, shouldn't seem cynical in view of all the sorrow and suffering, but if we didn't learn anything, it would all be in vain.
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Home office
Photo:
EVA PLEVIER / REUTERS
The third and final episode is supposed to be about private life.
Before the pandemic, employees were actually not allowed to have anything like a home - from an employer's perspective.
Some employers would certainly still find it better if someone had gotten rid of private life at some point, but now in the pandemic it just can't be completely denied.
Children crowd on home office screens and have to be looked after during the shutdown during the day.
And if someone is sick in their private sphere, then one has to stay at home - anyway, “home” has been the place of choice for months.
You could have worked with the same colleagues for years and never saw them with their children.
And suddenly the children come by during a conference, want to sit on their laps for a moment, and colleagues are still saying coherent sentences that even make sense.
The shutdown with small children at home with full working hours burdens many parents and of course cannot be a permanent condition, but the realization that private life is not a disruptive factor, but is part of life as a whole, should like to become permanent
Parents' column: Help, we've lost the rhythm
Everyday life in lockdown chaos: This is how your family life gets structure again
The latest news from the night
Issued as an immigrant: US professor is said to have written hateful comments with a fake profile
Leipzig in the Bundesliga: defeated FC Augsburg, lost Upamecano
After a dispute with a journalist: White House suspends vice spokesman
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Survivors of the attack report on their alienation from Germany: The Hanau Protocols
Germany's pandemic failure: the vaccine debacle damages the foundations of the state
Cheating with Corona aid: 1.3 million collected for intensive care beds - but where are they?
Fake contracts, black money, tax tricks: the dirty business with amateur football
Coaching for the home office: work relaxed, even in stressful times
My childhood in the seventies: a journey back into the realm of freedom
Video Game Tips: How To Make Self-Optimization Fun
I wish you a relaxing weekend.
Your Susanne Beyer