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The situation in the morning - the drama of the gifted Boris Palmer

2021-05-12T19:03:50.699Z


The mayor of Tübingen has gone over the top. Laschet has a problem with measurements. Germany vaccinates and relaxes. And: Donald Trump takes revenge on his opponents. That is the situation on Monday morning.


Today we are talking about the Mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, who has no problem with canceling culture, but with self-control.

CDU boss Armin Laschet squirms because of Hans-Georg Maaßen.

And Donald Trump takes revenge on his opponents.

Boris Palmer's problem is himself

No, the Mayor of Tübingen Boris Palmer - who is now to be expelled from the Green Party - is not the victim of an alleged "cancel culture" (this inflationary battle term is used by people who see themselves as victims of an alleged dictatorship of opinion and therefore often very much get a lot of attention).

Palmer's story is rather the drama of a highly talented politician who is a successful and popular mayor in Tübingen, but who simply cannot control himself.

Enlarge image

Lord Mayor Palmer in Tübingen

Photo: ULMER / imago images / ULMER press picture agency

The current Palmer case is not about freedom of expression, but about a lack of self-control.

It is about a prominent politician who publicly used an extremely primitive, racist word for the sexual organ of a black man.

This is not only unworthy of a mayor, but should also be embarrassing to anyone who believes in decency - a value that was once often referred to as bourgeois.

Palmer claims it was "satire."

But that is just as valid as when someone who throws feces around at the table then claims that it was just joking.

Enlarge image

Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock

Photo: Christian Spicker / imago images / Christian Spicker

It's a shame that Palmer apparently can't help it - for him and for his party.

At some point he was a hope for the future for the Greens, distancing himself further and further away from the party on many issues, always looking for the scandal anew.

Now he has to blame himself for the fact that the green candidate for Chancellor Annalena Baerbock wants him to be thrown out of the party.

Baerbock made the decision quickly - but as my colleague Jonas Schaible writes: The problem child Palmer can disrupt his party's election campaign for months.

  • Exclusion proceedings against Boris Palmer: incident in the election campaign

Laschet has a problem with measurements

Enlarge image

CDU candidate Maaßen in Suhl, Thuringia, after being nominated on April 30th

Photo: Michael Reichel / dpa

Despite everything, Baerbock is doing better with her astronomical poll numbers than her opponents

Olaf Scholz

(

SPD

)

and

Armin Laschet

(

CDU

)

.

On the weekend at the SPD's online party congress, Scholz finally tried to create the mood that his party, which is bobbing 15 percent, urgently needs.

Laschet first had to stall a discussion about a possible »return ticket« to NRW in the event of an election defeat.

On Sunday evening he presented himself to “Anne Will”, where he had to defend himself against the climate activist Luisa Neubauer and described his plans several times with the word “ambitious”.

Laschet especially wriggled when he was asked about the CDU candidate in southern Thuringia:

Hans-Georg Maaßen

, the former head of the constitutional protection.

Laschet did not want to distance himself, nor did he really want to defend Maaßen.

After the broadcast, a video circulated on Twitter in which Maaßen compares the fight against climate change with the world wars caused by Germany.

In it he says literally: “We cannot save the world.

We have already tried twice to save the world, and it went wrong every time. «It is certainly not an exaggeration to say that the CDU will have more trouble with this candidate than the Greens have with Boris Palmer in recent years.

  • TV review: How Armin Laschet did on »Anne Will«

The vaccination is running, the openings are coming

Enlarge image

A beer garden in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt

Photo: Ronny Hartmann / dpa

It's time for a little

optimism

: a third of the population in Germany has received at least one vaccination dose, almost 10 percent are fully vaccinated - and new vaccination records are reported every week.

At the same time, the number of infected and hospitalized people has been falling continuously since the end of April.

Where the incidence value falls below 100, the federal states can relax independently:

Gastronomy, tourism and retail will be opened in many places over the next few days and weeks

.

The third "model region" has already opened to tourists in Schleswig-Holstein.

Every second federal state already has incidence values ​​below 100.

Even

Christian Drosten

now says in the ZDF “heute journal”: “The summer can be very good in Germany.” Especially in the outdoor area, a lot will be allowed again.

But one shouldn't fall into "total euphoria" too early.

The numbers are also falling

across almost all of Europe

.

In

Spain

,

too,

the strictest corona rules were lifted at the weekend, including the curfew and the cordoning off of entire regions.

People across the country celebrated wildly - almost as if the pandemic was over.

Many countries want to allow tourism for vaccinated, convalescent and tested people again soon - above all Italy, which wants to open on May 15th.

Enlarge image

Outdoor catering in Zurich

Photo: MANUEL GEISSER / imago images / Geisser

Noteworthy: Switzerland, which on April 19, against the advice of its scientists, decided on the most far-reaching easing in all of Europe, is also

recording steadily falling numbers

.

The Swiss government made a risky bet at the time - but it now seems to be winning.

It has not yet been clarified why the numbers in Switzerland are constantly falling despite the fact that fitness studios, cinemas and theaters are open: If the Swiss are particularly responsible for their freedoms, this is already vaccination effects - or the warm weather and the seasonality of the virus but a higher influence?

  • Charité expert: Drosten believes in a good summer in Germany

Interview with the US envoy for Afghanistan

Enlarge image

Khalilzad

Photo: Susan Walsh / AP

The withdrawal of the US and its international allies from Afghanistan has begun -

all troops are said to have left the country by

September 11th

.

The fear of a new civil war is great.

My colleague Susanne Koelbl

spoke

to

Zalmay Khalilzad

, the US special envoy for reconciliation in Afghanistan.

She asked him about the stagnating peace process, the increasing violence and the danger of an endless war in the country.

Khalilzad says he hopes the Taliban will not choose "the military route" - and says "We will not let Afghanistan down".

Even if it feels the same for many Afghans.

  • Is a new war looming in the Hindu Kush?

    "We're not giving up Afghanistan"

Winner of the day ...

Enlarge image

Cheney

Photo: J. Scott Applewhite / AP

... is

Donald Trump

. Five months after the storm on the Capitol, he hardly appears in public anymore - but he has his Republican Party tighter than ever. His lie that his election was stolen is becoming the party's official ideology. And his most prominent internal party opponent is on the verge of losing her post:

Liz Cheney

, the daughter of ex-Vice President Dick Cheney, was one of only ten Republican MPs who voted for Donald Trump's second impeachment.

She is so far the third highest Republican woman in the House of Representatives.

But now the Republican minority leader,

Kevin McCarthy

, has stood up against them and supported a challenger.

MEPs are afraid of Trump's anger and the anger of his supporters.

What it means for democracy when one of the two parties in a two-party system no longer recognizes a defeat, we will probably see.

The latest news from the night

  • "Of course it would have been wiser not to post it at all":

    Boris Palmer is threatened with expulsion from the Greens for his latest derailment.

    The mayor of Tübingen now admitted a mistake - but is also aggressive

  • Man shoots six guests at a birthday party:

    A shooter opened fire during a celebration in the US state of Colorado.

    Six people died - including his girlfriend.

    The perpetrator then committed suicide

  • "Mr. Laschet, why are you particularly suitable as Federal Chancellor?":

    Armin Laschet takes a seat in the hot seat at "Anne Will" and appears anything but aggressive.

    For Hans-Georg Maaßen, he even goes on the defensive

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

  • Return travel ban from India: Australia's unprecedented hardship in the fight against Corona

  • SPIEGEL economic monitor: The Corona winter is coming, optimism is coming

  • Worldwide hype about e-car manufacturers: who will become the new Tesla?

  • Long-term experiment in the USA: The secret of the 140-year-old plant seeds

  • New technology: a chip is supposed to protect athletes from heat stroke

I wish you a good start to the day.

Your Mathieu von Rohr

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-05-12

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