1.
In addition to the bankruptcies of health policy, there is now also the suspicion that parliamentarians have held up their hands in mask deals
Of all the important German politicians, Jens Spahn is unfortunately the saddest figure at the moment - the man looks so pitifully at television pictures and photos that he can last a long time.
However, the clever sentence of the French writer Honoré de Balzac should apply to Spahn: "The feeling that a person is hardest to endure is pity - especially when he deserves it." the farce about the rapid tests, which are now likely to be available more quickly in German discount chains than in Germany's day-care centers and schools.
My colleague Dirk Kurbjuweit calls for consequences in the SPIEGEL editorial - and for Jens Spahn to resign.
"As health minister, he is jointly responsible for the bankruptcies," he writes.
Even personally, he is not up to the situation.
That is why Dirk thinks: "Spahn no longer belongs in this office."
Icon: enlarge
Health Minister Spahn: He no longer belongs in this office
Photo:
Filip Singer / EPA / ddp images
In the billion dollar business with protective masks, for which Spahn's Ministry of Health placed huge orders last year, more German parliamentarians than previously known were involved, according to seven of my colleagues.
Melanie Amann, Sven Becker, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Gunther Latsch, Sven Röbel, Gerald Traufetter, Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt and Robin Wille report, among other things, that a CDU member of the Bundestag from Baden-Württemberg sold masks to hospital operators - and received a commission for them.
He does not seem to have been the only parliamentarian who enriched himself personally at a time when hundreds of thousands of citizens are suffering from the pandemic, either healthily or economically.
The CSU MP Georg Nüßlein, who announced his retirement from politics today, is suspected by the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office of having collected a commission of 660,000 euros for campaigning for mask deals in various federal and state ministries.
My colleagues report on a "real gold rush that broke out in the mask trade during the panic months of the pandemic, March and April 2020".
I asked my colleague Gerald Traufetter how he assesses the moral dimension of the alleged politician deals.
"In the first lockdown, billions of dollars were suddenly waved for the sale of masks to Jens Spahn's Federal Ministry of Health," says Gerald.
“Numerous politicians have campaigned for companies in their constituency, for example, by forwarding offers.
That is also risky because the offers can be dubious.
But all politicians who have received commissions or other services in return must know that this goes down very badly in the eyes of the people they represent. "
The Minister of Health should resign: Enough, Mr. Spahn!
- The SPIEGEL editorial by Dirk Kurbjuweit
Promised too much, ordered too little: Why Aldi was faster than Jens Spahn in corona tests
More politicians involved in corona deals: MP describes his 250,000 euro mask commission as "in line with the market"
2.
At the People's Congress, China celebrates that it got the pandemic under control relatively early on
From today, the People's Congress will be held in Beijing, with China's show parliament confirming above all what the leadership of the Communist Party had previously decided.
The 2,907 members of the largest parliament in the world and the most important speaker in the congress, Prime Minister Li Keqiang, should be given a doctrine by the communist poet Bertolt Brecht, who is familiar with the nature of political meetings: “A man who has something to say and finds no audience, it's bad.
It is even worse for listeners who cannot find anyone to say something to them. "
In fact, the meeting of the People's Congress is the most important annual event in China's political calendar, write my colleague Georg Fahrion, reporting from Beijing, and colleague Bernhard Zand, reporting from Hong Kong, in their analysis.
Despite the show character of the conference, “conclusions could be drawn from the event about where the CCP intends to steer - economically, politically and militarily”.
China's politicians are likely to celebrate that their country has obviously got the pandemic under control faster than most other states.
"This success, achieved with ruthless methods and the almost complete isolation of the country, will shape the general mood of the People's Congress," said his colleagues.
"Look here, has been the message for months, our model is exemplary, China is superior to other countries."
People's Congress in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing
Photo: Kin Cheung / AP / dpa
The key point of the prime minister's speech is the growth forecast for China's economy, which Li Keqiang announced on Friday morning.
The economy will grow by "more than six percent" in 2021.
China will probably act even more rigidly against the democracy movement in Hong Kong in the future.
As early as 2020, the so-called Standing Committee of the People's Congress passed a security law for Hong Kong, which reinforced secession, subversion, terrorism and "conspiracy with foreign forces" with heavy penalties.
Critics see the law as an attack on the "high degree of autonomy" that Beijing had guaranteed the former British crown colony.
In the meantime, 99 Hong Kong citizens have been indicted under the law, 47 politicians and activists this week alone, effectively leading the pro-democratic opposition.
In 2021 the People's Congress will initiate a drastic political »reform«.
Rumor has it that the parliamentary election in Hong Kong, which was postponed by a year in September, could be postponed again.
Unlike in previous years, international journalists are not admitted to the People's Congress in Beijing this time.
"The police said we were not wanted," reports Georg Fahrion in the video from the Chinese capital.
Read the full story here: Closed Society
Impressions from Beijing in the video: "The police said we were not welcome"
3.
Even without a cinema audience, the Berlinale is a festival with great films
"Not the films are missing, the audience is missing," announced Carlo Chatrian, one of the two festival directors, when announcing the Berlinale, which this time was reduced to five days in March.
More than three decades ago, I had the pleasure of being an accredited reporter at the most important German film festival for the first time, and this year I was particularly pleased to be able to watch the competition films as one of the SPIEGEL cinema people.
Today the international jury announced who will receive the main prizes of the festival, and of course the online ceremony was particularly lacking in the audience in the hall.
Icon: enlarge
Scene from "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" with leading actress Katia Pascariu
Photo: Ghetie Silviu / Silviu Ghetie / Micro Film / Berlinale
The Romanian society satire "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" by Radu Jude won the Golden Bear.
Jude's film takes place in a world that is extremely upset, also because of the corona pandemic.
With a sense of humor, he describes how a teacher has to answer to a tribunal of angry parents because of a private sex video that she shows with her partner and ends up on the Internet.
The Berlinale is considered the most political of the major film festivals.
The fact that this time, due to the corona pandemic, she had to present her competition in online format shortened to five days, had made some film enthusiasts doubt the meaning of this year's events.
My colleague Hannah Pilarczyk wrote in her festival analysis that the two festival directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian had little leeway this year.
"Over 100 films, divided into five tranches and only activated for one day, simply did not fit together in individual use to form a festival program that encourages discussions and makes artistic positions beyond the individual film visible." The open »Summer Special« of this year's Berlinale will show the winning films and a selection of the other sections in Berlin cinemas in June.
The highest award for German cinema, which was well represented with four films in a field reduced to 15, was the jury award for Maria Speth's "Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse".
My colleague Hannah praises the film as “a wonderful long-term observation of a teacher who apparently can't help but get his students on the right track.” The two Silver Bears for performing arts for the German actress Maren Eggert (“I am yours Mensch ") and for her Hungarian colleague Lilla Kizlinger (" Rengeteg - Mindenhol látlak ") are also okay in Hannah's opinion.
But she is most impressed by the winning film "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" by the Romanian Jude.
For Hannah it is "the greatest fun that has won a Golden Bear in ages."
Romanian society satire: Golden Bear goes to "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn"
Balance of the online Berlinale: bad luck with the birds, luck in the cinema
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What else is important today
VW continues to rely on the internal combustion engine:
The proportion of e-cars at VW is to grow faster than previously planned.
In contrast to GM or Volvo, however, there is no end to the combustion engine.
Some classics even get a new edition.
Administrative court prohibits the protection of the constitution from observing the AfD for the time being:
The administrative court in Cologne forbids the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution from classifying and observing the AfD as a suspected case.
A court spokesman confirmed this to SPIEGEL.
The public prosecutor's office is bringing charges against Dieter Wedel: Dieter Wedel
is said to have raped a young actress in the summer of 1996, and the case is now going to court.
The director denies the allegations, his lawyer sharply criticized the investigators.
My favorite story today
On the birthday of Rosa Luxemburg, who was born 150 years ago today, my cultural colleague Elke Schmitter, who is always worth reading, pays tribute to the revolutionary who was murdered by right-wing terrorists - and comes to the conclusion: "Her personal thoughts and political questions are still moving today."
Political icon Rosa Luxemburg: The dream of conquering the future
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
"We have patients who have been there since October":
Emergency physician Christian Karagiannidis warns of a drastic increase in the number of infections in view of the relaxation of the corona.
Here he says which patients are at greatest risk of ending up in the intensive care unit.
"Violent resistance cannot be ruled out":
In a 1001-page internal report, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution explains why it wants to monitor the AfD.
The analysis is available to SPIEGEL.
"We defend ourselves against rabid, lawless Trump supporters":
Since his withdrawal from the White House, Donald Trump has resided in southeast Florida like a king, and his fans have followed him.
Our reporter spoke to enthusiastic supporters and annoyed residents.
Which is not so important today
Icon: enlarge
One last celebrates: Ari Huusela is delighted to have crossed the finish line at the Vendée Globe
Photo:
LOIC VENANCE / AFP
Sailor of the heart:
Ari Huusela
, 58, was the last regatta
athlete
to cross the finish line in this year's ninth edition of the Vendée Globe.
The Finn completed the supposedly toughest regatta in the world after 116 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes and 46 seconds before the French port city of Les Sables-d'Olonne.
The winner of the competition, Frenchman Yannick Bestaven, had finished the goal 36 days earlier.
"I am very proud and happy," said Huusela after his arrival.
He described his hardest moments on board as follows: "Sometimes I hoped that the boat would break in two and that I could jump on a cargo ship to rescue me."
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "The reform would also affect games that were previously classified as harmless, such as› Fifa 21 ‹"
Cartoon of the day:
"It's about to go!"
Icon: enlarge Photo: Klaus Stuttmann
And tonight?
Could you buy theater tickets again?
Many of the theaters that have been closed for months now offer live streams, access costs no more than a cinema ticket.
In Hamburg's Thalia Theater, for example, today and tomorrow from 7 p.m., »Der Geizige«, which the director Leander Haußmann staged under Corona conditions, but in a pretty good mood.
(Here he told me about the rehearsals.) In the title role, the otherwise so sensitive Thalia star Jens Harzer can be seen, who can hardly be recognized, but who obviously enjoys his role as a stout philistine.
Go to the theater here.
A lovely evening.
Sincerely
yours, Wolfgang Höbel
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.
