Today the focus is on the Chancellor's digital legacy, the risk of rent poverty and the aspirations for independence in Scotland and Wales.
Greetings to the copper cable
Angela Merkel
is taking part in a "science evening" at the Aachen University RWTH, which is celebrating its 150th birthday this year.
Digitization
should be an important topic
in Germany
. Merkel is brave. Because digitization is, if you say it politely, not necessarily their favorite discipline. Or, less polite, but truer: after 16 years as Chancellor, the Federal Republic looks like a
digital desert
in an international comparison
. Greetings to the good old copper cable from Telekom!
The “Competence Center Public IT” (ÖFIT), which will present its Germany Index of Digitization 2021 in the afternoon, will probably also come to a problematic finding.
The focus is primarily on the digitization of the state and administration.
Greetings to the fax machines in the health authorities!
Enlarge image
Chancellor Merkel, candidate for Chancellor Laschet
Photo: Martin Meissner / AP
As the Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia,
Armin Laschet
is the patron of the "Science
Evening"
.
He has been trying for a long time to get rid of his image as an alleged Merkel copy and candidate for the future, and these days he is persistently promoting a “decade of modernization”.
The errors that became apparent in the pandemic should now be tackled, says Laschet.
The state and administration must become more digital, faster, leaner as well as more flexible and efficient.
“We can change.
But we've become too comfortable in recent years. "
The fact that Germany's need for modernization is actually enormous is inevitably related to the past decade, which was shaped by the CDU and was one of wait-and-see indolence.
Greetings to the Chancellor!
What challenges await the new federal government
Election campaign for housing
Enlarge image
New building project in Berlin
Photo: Stefan Boness / IPON / imago images
Today in Berlin there is a digital
»election campaign arena living«
.
The occasion is the so-called »12.
Housing Day «(which is not available).
Horst Seehofer will also go to the »Arena«. In addition to protecting his homeland and fighting right-wing radicalism, he is also responsible for building, at least qua office.
Furthermore, SPD "Chancellor candidate" Olaf Scholz is part of the party, the Green almost Chancellor candidate Robert Habeck, the would-be Chancellor candidate Christian Lindner (FDP) and left leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow.
It will be exciting to see who (except for the left boss) dares
to demand
a strict
rent cap for all of Germany
, as the red-red-green Senate of Berlin had introduced for the capital - until the Federal Constitutional Court recently stopped the experiment.
The court did not fundamentally question a state cap on rents.
They only complained that a federal state went it alone.
The fact that living has long since become a
poverty trap
for many
, at least in the cities, should be one of the core issues of this federal election campaign.
It is perhaps the greatest social question of our time.
How helpful a nationwide rent cap would be
The somewhat different Brexit
Nicola Sturgeon (archive image)
Photo:
RUSSELL CHEYNE / REUTERS
General
elections are taking place
in
Scotland
and
Wales
today. Their outcome could be of great importance for the future of Europe. If the UK's exit from the EU should be followed by individual regions leaving the UK. In
any case,
Brexit gave the independence movements in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland
a considerable boost.
In the general election in Scotland, the Scottish National Party of Prime Minister
Nicola Sturgeon is a
huge favorite. She has long called for independence from Great Britain and is pushing for another referendum on the issue.
Even in Wales, which is traditionally loyal to London, there is now serious talk of detachment.
The national party Plaid Cymru, for example, is calling for a referendum on independence.
And polls show that more Welsh people than ever are in favor of breaking away from the kingdom.
There is also a growing distance from London in Northern Ireland, which was occupied by the British a long time ago and then strategically populated.
Personally, I would be delighted if Scots, Welsh and Northern Irish were part of the European Union again.
Why the desire for independence is also growing in Wales
Loser of the day ...
Photo: Julian Stratenschulte / dpa
... are the
children in Germany
.
Last year the police registered more sexual abuse of children - despite the pandemic-related contact restrictions: 14,594 cases, an increase of 6.8 percent compared to the previous year.
According to the latest police crime statistics, the number of crimes in connection with pornographic depictions of children and adolescents rose by around 54 percent to 26,739 cases in 2020.
Federal Family Minister Franziska Giffey wants to present her conclusions from these depressing figures in Berlin today.
What is urgently needed are: even more intensive controls and investigations on the part of the state, even more severe penalties, even more prevention and education - and even more vigilance from each of us.
The latest news from the night
The British are sending two naval ships to the Channel Island of Jersey:
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In the dispute over fish licenses, it sends patrol boats to the Channel Island
Biontech vaccine also protects older people by more than 95 percent from infections:
More than half of the people in Israel are already fully vaccinated with Biontech.
New data shows that the country successfully contained the pandemic with its vaccination campaign
Top Republican Cheney warns of Trump's »crusade«:
»The party is at a turning point«: Liz Cheney has sent a warning to the Republicans in the dispute with Donald Trump.
But the ex-president is working on her demotion
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I wish you a happy Thursday
Your Markus Feldenkirchen