Save the climate quickly
Green alert in the Union.
The Greens dispute first place in the polls for the Union, Annalena Baerbock depends on Armin Laschet on the K question -
the party leaders of the CDU and CSU are extremely nervous less than five months before the general election.
Enlarge image
Union candidate for Chancellor Laschet
Photo: Markus Schreiber / AFP
In a »brief analysis«, the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus has now tried to slap the Green election program. This is reminiscent of a toadstool: "Looks nice, but is inedible." The problem with this is that the Union has no alternative to offer; it has not yet submitted a draft program itself. Reminiscent of truffles: supposed to be great, but nowhere to be seen.
To make matters worse - from the point of view of the Union - the Federal Constitutional Court with its ruling on the Climate Protection Act has put the green core issue back at the top of the agenda.
That makes for hectic, the Chancellor is speeding up, CSU boss Markus Söder anyway, the climate targets are being sharpened in a hurry. Only poor Armin Laschet, who became party leader with mining prose and considers German steelworks to be a contribution to climate protection, is once again acting like a brake: But don't chase the Greens!
The calculation of the Christian Democratic and Christian Social climate activists is clear: clear up the issue quickly so that it does not become a green election campaign hit.
Then again focus on the pandemic: falling infection numbers, vaccination turbo, more freedom, the prospect of open beer gardens and summer vacation.
The climate saved, Corona defeated - voters should be able to appreciate that in September.
If it were that easy.
More background information here: Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court - government wants to sharpen climate targets
Scholz in the shade
At their virtual party congress next Sunday,
Olaf Scholz
and his comrades
want to
"get off to a powerful start".
What slogans you put out before such meetings.
But many in the SPD are slowly but surely losing faith that something will happen when they get started.
Enlarge image
SPD candidate for Chancellor Scholz
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
The Social Democrats proclaimed Scholz a candidate early last year, but the polls have not changed since then.
In the meantime there is even a risk of being forgotten that the SPD is still making claims to the Chancellery.
Between the Laschet-Söder scuffle and the Baerbock fireworks, the incumbent Vice Chancellor calls out: I'm still there!
But hardly anyone hears him.
Maybe that's exactly the problem: Olaf Scholz was somehow always there.
SPD General, SPD Vice, Interior Senator, Labor Minister, First Mayor, Finance Minister, Vice Chancellor.
Scholz wants to score with his experience.
But that will not be enough to arouse longing for social democratic leadership among the electorate in the coming months.
What happened in the Republic of 21
How will Germany become fairer?
We will discuss this question in our SPIEGEL project Republic 21 in May - with experts, politicians and with you, dear readers.
Many of you already discussed controversially yesterday in the SPIEGEL Arena.
Today SPIEGEL editors Felix Bohr and Florian Diekmann will be talking on
from 5 p.m. on
the costs of the corona crisis, the question of who has to bear these costs - and whether a wealth tax can make sense.
And of course the colleagues will answer your questions.
THE MIRROR
On Thursday, the
Voices Catch
podcast is about the
rent madness in Berlin and other German cities.
What ways are there to regulate the heated and unjust housing market after the Berlin rent cap was declared unconstitutional in April?
Last but not least, we would like to ask you at this point:
If you could personally change a single thing in Germany, what would it be?
And how would that make the country fairer?
Write us your answer to republik21@spiegel.de.
Here you can read a first interim conclusion that we drew after four weeks at Republik 21.
What the polls say
The descent has stopped for the time being - that is the
good news for the Union.
In the current evaluation of the
SPIEGEL Sunday question,
collected by the opinion research institute Civey, the CDU and CSU are again just ahead of the Greens, but still within the statistical margin of error.
It is possible that the first Baerbock euphoria will slowly subside, the circumstances of the Laschet freestyle move into the background and the ranks will close again a little.
In the
K question
, the Union candidate can make up ground compared to the survey two weeks ago and overtake Olaf Scholz.
The Green leader is still the favorite of the Germans.
The question is whether the Greens can maintain the positive trend of the past two weeks.
Because the party knows its way around good numbers that are ultimately worthless.
And there is still a long way to go before the election.
You can read a more detailed analysis of the survey data in the afternoon at spiegel.de.
The constituency of the week: # 297
In the far west of the republic, in the
constituency of Saarlouis,
there will probably be the only direct duel between two incumbent federal ministers:
Peter Altmaier versus Heiko Maas, economics minister versus chief diplomat, heavyweight versus triathlete.
In 2017, CDU man Altmaier, 62, won the direct mandate for the third time in a row despite significant losses, while SPD competitor Maas, 54, landed almost six percentage points behind his competitor.
The two have been sitting at the cabinet table for eight years (previously as head of the Chancellery and Minister of Justice) and, together with Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, have ensured a Saarland weight during this electoral period that is not entirely in proportion to the importance of the state.
But what will happen to the Saar connection after the election?
Kramp-Karrenbauer, it is said, has meanwhile found pleasure in her job and would like to continue - provided the CDU is involved in the next government.
Their chances are not that bad, since Berlin is not exactly keen on their department.
Enlarge image
Minister Altmaier, Maas at an energy conference in April 2018
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / picture alliance
For Altmaier and Maas, however, things are not looking good.
As Merkel's confidante and all-purpose weapon, Altmaier has worked at pretty much every counter in Berlin's political spaceship.
But now the Chancellor is saying goodbye, and Altmaier will have a hard time getting hold of another post to end his career - especially since his pandemic performance was rather mediocre.
It is also unlikely that the Maas will become something again - not only because the SPD would have to continue to govern for it.
The foreign minister's standing in the party is poor, and the name Maas cannot be found on the virtual list of potential future SPD government members.
Saarlouis will probably experience a duel between former ministers soon.
The social media moment of the week
A few days ago a
Twitter battle over public broadcasting
showed how nervous the Union is for some
.
Many Christian Democrats have long suspected him of persistently working on the left-green indoctrination of the citizens of this country.
Agriculture Minister
Julia Klöckner
believed she had
discovered
evidence of this
.
A user had a clip of the ARD program »Maischberger.
The week «Green Chancellor candidate
Annalena Baerbock
attacked: The Greens had made it
socially acceptable
to fill political offices without any general education."
The social media team of the first ARD program rushed to the defense and gave the CDU politician Klöckner such a step forward: "The federal office of the Greens could not have answered better."
Enlarge picture Photo: @HollsteinM / Twitter
Criticism and outrage followed, about Klöckner, but also about the first.
In fact, the Baerbock tweet is hardly an indication of partiality on the part of the First German Television - especially since it may have been deposed by a cocky student assistant.
And yet an incumbent minister uses the harmless reply to the media thrashing.
The AfD applauds.
Which is not to say that the expression of opinion via an account that otherwise only distributes program information was appropriate.
The first responded after two days, deleted the tweet and apologized.
It won't be the last of its kind.
The stories of the week
I would particularly like to recommend these politically relevant stories from our capital city office to you:
Consequences of the Constitutional Court's climate ruling: "The Federal Government is avoiding the numbers"
Goodbye, lockdown!
More freedom for vaccinated people - the SPIEGEL cover story
CDU Chancellor candidate Laschet: Where, please, are you going to leave?
Heartily,
Your Philipp Wittrock
And once again the note on our own behalf: You can order this briefing as a newsletter in your e-mail inbox here.