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The situation in the morning - Germany is not getting through the pandemic well

2021-03-03T05:01:50.420Z


No, Germany is not getting through the pandemic well. The federal-state meeting will decide to relax - the question is how far they go. Corona hotspot in the Czech Republic. The EU and its vaccine problem. That is the situation on Wednesday.


Farewell to the 35

From 2 p.m. today, the Chancellor will join the Prime Ministers of the federal states to discuss how to deal with the pandemic.

A draft resolution was already made public yesterday - after that the lockdown is to be extended to March 28th, combined with some easing:

For example, up to five people should be allowed to meet privately again, bookshops and garden centers should also reopen.

Icon: enlarge

Angela Merkel

Photo: John Macdougall / dpa

It is uncertain whether this proposal will survive today's conference:

The will to relax is much more pronounced in some federal states than in this proposal of

the so-called group of four, which the Chancellor and the country leaders are working on.

The incidence value of 35, on which everything depended so far, is under scrutiny.

Angela Merkel has already announced that she would like an

"emergency brake"

in the event that the numbers go up again - but that would mean that the easing would most likely be short-lived.

And that in turn would not be in the interests of those who so desperately want to loosen up.

Given this starting point, it would be surprising if all those involved were to commit themselves to a common course for the whole country today.

There was once a sentence that everyone said, but now nobody says it because it is no longer true.

It read:

"Germany got through the pandemic well".

That has not been the case for half a year.

The pandemic management threatens to overshadow the end of Merkel's chancellorship.

The fact that Germany not only has too little vaccine, but also fails to quickly inoculate it, is also the result of a lack of digitization and inefficient bureaucracy.

That is also a matter of the country, but not only for a long time.

What is certain is that the Chancellery is on the defensive.

This is initially due to the boss Merkel herself, but also to her Chancellery Minister

Helge Braun

.

At the beginning of the pandemic, Merkel's corona coordinator appeared as a level-headed manager.

Meanwhile he seems perplexed and overwhelmed.

My Berlin colleagues ask: What's going on?

Icon: enlarge

The vaccine is in the refrigerator

Photo: Sven Hoppe / dpa

My business colleague Stefan Schultz writes about

the needs of the self-employed after three months of shutdown

: Many are financially and nervously exhausted.

A businesswoman he spoke to has to tap into her 80-year-old mother's savings.

A freelance fitness trainer is still waiting for the aid money from November, a couple of entrepreneurs can only afford canned food - and a beautician wants to vote for AfD.

It is the

bitter balance of a miserable state crisis management

.

  • Women entrepreneurs in need of Corona: "Why can't the state do it?"

Czech Republic, the world corona hotspot

There is no question of easing in the neighboring country of the

Czech Republic

: With a value of 775, it has one of the highest corona 7-day incidences in the world.

More than 11,000 people are infected on average every day - out of a total population of just under eleven million.

This also affects the neighboring districts on the German side of the border.

The government has severely restricted the freedom of movement of its citizens.

The city of Tachov is particularly hard hit.

Icon: enlarge

A police officer controls the corona regulations in the Czech Republic

Photo: Luboö PavlÌËek / dpa

My colleague Jan Puhl spoke to Vice Mayor Josef Horáček.

He reports: “

The people I meet are sad and depressed.

There is almost no resident who does not have a relative or acquaintance who has died.

It's bad.

I have also experienced that myself.

Every week I hear that some friend or colleague is dead. "

That doesn't happen anywhere on the other side of the world, but right on the German border.

Do you remember how many Germans felt for Italy a year ago?

Today one hears much less about the situation in the neighboring Czech Republic.

You can read the full interview with the Vice Mayor here:

  • Corona hotspot Czech Republic: "There is almost complete silence"

When EU countries trust China and Israel more than Brussels

The EU is politically strong when its member states feel that, thanks to the Union, they have global political and economic weight that they alone would not have.

That is why Europe's problems with obtaining vaccines are so dangerous.

If not only the USA and Israel overtake the EU, but also the ex-member Great Britain is better off than the EU members acting together, the Union loses political capital and authority.

It can now be viewed in

Hungary, the additional vaccine ordered not only from Russia, but also from China

- and other Eastern European countries want to follow suit: the

Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland

.

Icon: enlarge

The Slovak Prime Minister Matovic receives the Russian vaccine »Sputnik V«

Photo: PETER LAZAR / AFP

But

Austria

and

Denmark are also

turning away from the common EU strategy.

The two countries want to

enter into a vaccine

alliance with Israel

and cooperate in vaccine production.

Commission President

Ursula von der Leyen

has announced that everything should now be better and more flexible, also with regard to the approval of new vaccines - in view of the dwindling trust in the EU, it would certainly not be bad if this announcement was followed by action.

  • In an interview, Slovak President Zuzana Čaputová explains why her country wants Russian vaccine

Habeck and capitalism

An unusual speaker is appearing today at the business-oriented institute of the German economy, a bastion of German capitalism: the co-head of the Greens and possible candidate for chancellor Robert Habeck,

who was previously not known as the bosses' buddy

.

In the end, Habeck was not entirely steadfast in terms of his positions: In a video interview he skidded when the interviewer asked him if he was in favor of the release of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange - first he said "no," from irritated by the questions and then suddenly changed his mind to "yes".

Icon: enlarge

Habeck

Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa

That will not happen to him in today's laudation at the “Max Weber Prize for Business Ethics”.

According to the text of the speech, which we were able to see beforehand, he wants to say:

“Capitalism has brought us incredible successes.” But

then also restrict: “The ecological costs of our economy, the unbridled more, better, newer, are no longer acceptable . "The increase in profit and property through growth as the goal of capitalist economic activity could, according to Habeck," no longer be an end in itself. "

Perhaps after the pandemic and a decade of right-wing populism, a "new decade of humanism, a new renaissance" will begin.

That would then, according to the head of the Greens, "the basis for a different capitalism, perhaps for something completely different that still has no name today."

A lack of steadfastness in this speech will not be Robert Habeck's problem - at most, that the »Fridays for Future« activists Luisa Neubauer or Greta Thunberg sound clearer and more powerful when they formulate similar thoughts.

Loser of the day ...

... is the governor of the state of New York,

Andrew Cuomo

.

In October the "New Yorker" headlined about him: "The King of New York".

The Democratic politician was praised for his hands-on attitude in the Corona crisis.

Last summer, he appeared in front of the media every day, attacked Donald Trump's inadequate corona strategy and staged himself with his brother, CNN star Chris Cuomo.

A possible presidential candidacy was discussed.

But now Cuomo is at the bottom, his popularity has collapsed

: Three women have already accused him of harassing them

with sexually suggestive remarks and offers

.

Icon: enlarge

Cuomo

Photo: SETH WENIG / AFP

A now 25-year-old ex-employee reported that Cuomo, 38 years her senior, asked her if she slept with older men - anyone over 22 would be fine with him.

Another woman said that Cuomo touched her the first time they met and asked if he could kiss her.

The meetings are said to have taken place long after the start of the "Me Too" movement -

they could now cost the politician his office

.

Cuomo said he was "really sorry" if his utterances were understood as "undesirable flirtation".

The former political star is burdened by other scandals: Death numbers have been coiffed in retirement homes and his management style is described as authoritarian.

  • New York governor scandal: Third woman accuses Cuomo of sexual harassment

The latest news from the night

  • Grand coalition agrees on lobby registers:

    They

    argued for

    months, now there is an agreement: SPD and Union have agreed on a mandatory lobby register.

    In the future, stakeholders will have to register

  • German organizations surprised by Morocco's announced break in contact:

    Morocco apparently wants to suspend contact with the German embassy.

    Organizations like the Konrad Adenauer Foundation were not prepared for this - and are now feeling the first consequences

  • 168 million children worldwide have been out of school for a year:

    14 countries have been largely in lockdown since March 2020, according to Unicef ​​- with catastrophic consequences for school children: for millions of them, lessons have been completely or largely canceled

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

  • Twelve months of pandemic in nine leaps of thought: The most coherent moment of my Corona year

  • Theft of pesticides: "The perpetrators come up with a shopping list"

  • New study on traffic pollution: why noise makes birds stupid

  • Account changes, time deposits, stock savings: this is how you escape negative interest rates

I wish you a good start to the day.

Your Mathieu von Rohr

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-03-03

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