The matter of the "CDU Future Council"
Chapeau, dear Rosa Schneider from the so-called CDU Future Council!
The day before yesterday you wrote me back in response to a number of questions in such detail that the founding press conference of your new troop made it to yesterday morning.
The dpa had pointed out the date in its preview of the day, so I came across you.
Only after sending the newsletter and a message from Union circles did I realize that there really couldn't be much behind your CDU Future Council, especially
no CDU
. That is why we deleted the announcement of your event yesterday because it was misleading - and we apologize to our readers. Other media, including the dpa, reacted similarly.
CDU Federal Managing Director Stefan Hennewig had described your founding campaign as a »deep fake«, which, in turn, was too much of an honor for me. After all, they are not fake profiles or trolls created by Artificial Intelligence, but real people who yesterday, it seems to me, performed an
act of political action art
, albeit with a few technical wobbles.
If you research their names and faces, you come across a Henriette "Hetty" Schneider, who spent some time in Russia and hoped to be able to contribute to "Fridays for Future Russia". Her comrade-in-arms Manon Gerhardt, who is probably really called that, was once on a press team of the environmental activists of "Extinction Rebellion". And your colleague, who calls himself Karl Steinlein, can be found under the first name Friedrich as an actor from Berlin-Neukölln.
When we spoke on the phone again yesterday, you admitted that the vast majority of your group of ten come from the
environmental movement
.
At the same time you emphasized that you are not a »fake«, that you use your real surname, that you do not work with »Extinction Rebellion« and that you wanted to continue with your project, because the influence of the business lobby on the CDU was too great that the climate protection lobby had too keep it small.
The only problem is that you have as much in common with the CDU as Friedrich Merz has with the tree occupiers from the Hambach Forest.
And that is why, I suspect, you will not be listened to too much in the Union.
So in the end it was an amusing and confusing moment in this otherwise dogged election campaign, for which I was happy to be ridiculed.
Definitely not a fake: How much climate protection is there in the CDU election program?
An analysis by my two colleagues Sebastian Spallek and Kurt Stukenberg in their podcast
The EU fitness plan
It sounds like the title of the new "Brigitte" diet, in truth it is a mammoth project.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to present her
“Fit for 55” plan
today at noon
, a package of twelve laws that are intended to ensure that the EU will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 and
by 2050
becomes
completely climate neutral
.
But there are obviously considerable differences of opinion among the 27 EU commissioners, as my colleague Markus Becker from Brussels found out. Their heads of cabinet sat in one crisis meeting after another, on Friday for around five hours, according to participants, on Monday twelve, on Tuesday it went on for hours in the morning.
Now it is actually about little less than turning the entire economy of the European Union inside out - and that within a few years.
Energy from coal, gas or oil is to be made significantly more expensive in order to finance the switch to green technologies.
Cars should emit less and less CO₂ and possibly none at all in 2035 - it would be the
end of the internal combustion engine in the EU
.
In addition, the emissions trading system could also be extended to buildings.
How all of this should be implemented in a socially acceptable way is still open.
"The dispute over the details should not only occupy Brussels for a long time," says Markus Becker.
Whether the plan succeeds depends on what tone Ursula von der Leyen takes today for the revolutionary project.
The dream of a climate-neutral Europe - you can read a critical analysis by my colleagues Michael Sauga and Stefan Schultz here
Unpredictable sister
The
traditional closed-door meeting of
the CSU regional group of the Bundestag in Seeon am Chiemsee is also a seismograph for the relationship between the two sisters, the CDU and the CSU.
Just think of 2018, when the then party leader Horst Seehofer invited Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as a guest to the New Year's retreat in the monastery to send a signal against Angela Merkel's refugee policy (which Seehofer would of course deny).
When the CSU state group goes into retreat from today, the question is exciting how big the
withdrawal movements to the sister party
will be
in the election year
. Most recently, CSU boss Markus Söder had shown astonishing solidarity with Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet for his circumstances, but at least thematically the Christian Socialists will want to set a few scented brands.
The topic of
maternal pensions
will come up, a primary concern of Söder that did not make it into the joint election program.
It will be about
tax breaks
: The CSU wants them, Laschet had recently spoken out rather negatively.
It will also depend on how the two party leaders are on the day when they meet in Seeon on Thursday.
Does Söder use his domestic power for a strong appearance or does he generously leave the field to Laschet, knowing full well that he is in the middle of the election campaign?
Review 2018: When Viktor Orbán came to the monastery.
You can read the text from that time here
Reading tip of the day
I would like to recommend a contribution by two colleagues Koen Voskuil and Yelle Tieleman from the
Algemeen Dagblad
in the Netherlands, which impressed and touched me very much.
You write about the brutal attack on crime reporter Peter R. de Vries.
Above all, however, they describe how terrifyingly far
the power of the drug cartels
has already advanced in our neighboring country.
It was shortly after the attack when there were threats against RTL Boulevard, the program on which de Vries was a regular commentator.
RTL then decided not to broadcast the planned program, which was a novelty, write the two reporters and come to the conclusion: "The criminal underworld has silenced journalism in the Netherlands."
Examples like this show how the Dutch authorities have
slipped control of the cartels
through
false laissez-fair policies
- and gang bosses like a man named Ridouan Taghi can evidently act against their enemies from prison.
The text is also a reminder to local politics, a warning against too much liberality in drug policy.
You can read the guest article here
The latest news from the night
Venice bans cruise giants from its port:
the huge pots damage the lagoon's ecosystem - and the foundations of the houses: cruise ships of a certain size are no longer allowed to call at Venice.
An industrial port is waiting for them
160 more graves of indigenous children discovered:
"It breaks my heart": Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded with clear words to the renewed discovery of grave sites near a former boarding school.
Hundreds of children's bodies are believed to be in the graves
The United States accuse Iranian agents of kidnapping plan in Brooklyn:
The target is said to have been an activist in New York: A US prosecutor has indicted four members of the Iranian secret service.
The FBI had exposed the planned kidnapping
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
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Escalation of Violence in South Africa: Days of Anger
I wish you a peaceful start to the day.
Your Martin Knobbe