Today it is about the costs of the flood disaster, the right preparation for future pandemics, the invitations to meals from constitutional judges and the deceit of lateral thinkers.
Million euros for the flood victims
Today the Federal Cabinet in Berlin will
decide
on
emergency aid for the flood victims
. The bill provides for 400 million euros, half of which is to be borne by the federal and state governments. Of course, this is just the beginning, quick money for people who are left empty-handed and without a roof over their heads.
Negotiations are still going
on about the
multi-billion dollar reconstruction fund
for the destroyed roads, bridges, electricity and water lines. After the hole that the corona costs tore in the state coffers, the tide will now tear another one. All federal states should contribute to the costs of the reconstruction, regardless of whether they were hit by the flood.
One topic has so far remained in the background: the question of whether the homeowners were actually insured against natural disasters - and whether they should be legally obliged to do so in the future.
Can this kind of precaution be asked of people?
My colleague Tim Bartz conducted an interesting interview with Jan-Oliver Thofern, managing director of the insurance broker Aon Germany.
"In Rhineland-Palatinate, one of the epicenters of the flood disaster, only 37 percent of the property owners a
hazard insurance
finished, ”says Thofern.
Nationwide, the rate is also below 50 percent.
Of course, not every German lives in a potential flood or other disaster area, which is why Thofern also rejects a legal obligation to insure against natural hazards.
He has another proposal: "Instead of paying for the uninsured damage," says Thofern, "the policy should allow policyholders to deduct the premiums for private natural hazard insurance from their taxable income." This would give people an incentive to cover themselves .
"And that would be part of the general interest, so that not everything is passed on to the taxpayer every time, as it is sure to happen again now."
Visiting the flood area: How Armin Laschet finds himself in the role of the father of the country
Millions of masks for nothing
Meanwhile, the debate continues, like
disaster control in Germany
so could fail. Which is why, despite clear predictions by the meteorologists, people were not warned in time. As is so often the case, the interplay of the levels in federalism seems to be the source of the evil, here between the federal agency of the German Meteorological Service and the state or local authorities. The political debate is slowly picking up speed, and two Union politicians do not necessarily agree on this, as the visit by CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet and Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer in the flood area shows. Laschet promised: "We will investigate in retrospect, where can the reporting channels be even better." The situation on site would have developed very differently than the disaster plans had foreseen. Seehofer, on the other hand, rejects criticism of disaster control as "very cheap campaign rhetoric".You can find an analysis by my colleagues on the topic that is worth reading here.
The flood raises big questions, and if it weren't for the summer break long ago, the topic would of course be on the agenda for a Bundestag debate.
But none is planned for the time being, even if the AfD has formally requested it.
Instead, the Interior Committee will meet on Monday, where Seehofer and Armin Schuster, President of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief, will be available to answer questions.
In fact, better preparation of the country for national disaster situations has been in the planning for some time, although Seehofer and Schuster thought less of floods than of another
pandemic
or
widespread power outages due to cyber attacks
. And the plan was primarily to build up huge stocks of essential goods in order to be able to supply the population if necessary. Seehofer and Health Minister Jens Spahn present the first building block today, the "National Health Protection Reserve". Under the aegis of the technical relief organization, stocks for important health goods are to be created, further reserves for food or fuel are to follow later. But in the event of the flood, such storage facilities would not have helped if there was obviously not even a uniform, functioning warning system.
And maybe you remember, dear reader, that there should also be a lot of
protective masks of questionable quality
in Spahn's health
protection
store
. My colleagues Jürgen Dahlkamp and Konstantin von Hammerstein had made public that the Ministry of Health wanted to temporarily get rid of the masks, which were hastily bought in the pandemic and only tested for their effectiveness with stripped-down procedures, to the homeless and the disabled.
After the Ministry of Labor had stood up, these masks are now to land in the National Reserve.
One wonders whether one can really speak of a reserve if goods are dumped there that Labor Minister Hubertus Heil would not bring to the people without further quality testing, as he emphasized in our interview.
Mask affair: Greetings from the Minister
A dinner for a judgment?
Today a dream of many AfD fans is coming true: Angela Merkel is on trial. However, it is not a criminal court where the right-wing populists would like to see the Chancellor, for whatever offense, and Merkel will not appear in person in the room. But it is the Federal Constitutional Court. Negotiations are taking place in Karlsruhe today on Merkel's statements about the prime ministerial election in Thuringia in February 2020, when FDP man Thomas Kemmerich was elected head of government with the votes of AfD members of the state parliament. At the time, Merkel spoke up from South Africa, describing the event as "unforgivable" and a "bad day for democracy". Their appearance culminated in the demand that the election result must be "reversed".
The
AfD
evaluates these statements, which were published on the website of the Chancellor and the Federal Government at the time, as a
violation of Merkel's neutrality obligation as a state body
. The AfD's chances of victory are not bad: the Constitutional Court has already ruled against Federal Interior Minister Seehofer, who described the AfD as “destroying the state”. It violates the AfD's equal opportunities when a minister speaks out against an opposition party in the exercise of his office.
No judgment will be given today, but the oral hearing and especially the questions from the judges often give an idea of the outcome. In recent days, the issue has become more politically explosive because it became known that a delegation from the court was invited to a dinner in the Chancellery with Merkel on June 30th - that is, "with the defendant at her invitation and in fact at her expense." , criticized the AfD a little later, and immediately filed bias petitions against the judges in their proceedings who had attended the dinner.
The idea that Karlsruhe judges can be persuaded by a warm meal in the Chancellery to pronounce a verdict in favor of the hostess seems absurd to me. These dinners are a ritual that takes place annually and is anything but secret: Karlsruhe itself reliably sends out a press release. In addition, the President of the Court, Stephan Harbarth, had long been a leading legal politician in the Union faction in the Bundestag. So he must have eaten countless meals with the Chancellor. If anything, this highly political background of Harbarth is a problem for the credibility and independence of the court. However, the president is not at all responsible for the AfD case.
What the AfD does not denounce is that on June 21, before the Merkel dinner, a delegation from Karlsruhe traveled to Berlin. According to the court's press release, they met "with the Presidium and the parliamentary group and committee chairmen of the German Bundestag". Then comes the shocking sentence: “At the invitation of the President of the Bundestag, Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble Member of the Bundestag, an exchange of ideas and experiences took place during a joint dinner. "
Another dinner!
Whether the AfD parliamentary group leaders Alexander Gauland or Alice Weidel also took part?
Since this Lage-Newsletter is written exclusively for you, ladies and gentlemen, every day at late hours outside the business hours of the AfD parliamentary group press office, this sensitive information must be submitted in tomorrow's edition.
But if Weidel and Gauland dined with the group, one can only hope that they maintained strict neutrality and did not discuss their case, but only discussed with the judges how Angela Merkel is abolishing Germany.
Short-term head of government in Thuringia: Karlsruhe deals with Merkel's remarks on the Kemmerich election
A woman for the FT
There was once a newspaper called the Financial Times Deutschland (FTD), where I had my very first job as an editor in 2005. The FTD, now discontinued for reasons of economy, was the German offshoot of the British Financial Times (FT), which still exists and which even has a pioneering role in the all-important digital business: The FT dared to go ahead of many other media, Pulling in payment barriers on the Internet and no longer just giving away quality journalism on the Internet. For some time now, the newspaper has been run by a woman, Roula Khalaf, who was born in Lebanon. And anyone who is even a little interested in the media business (or the role of women in the media) should read the interview that Isabell Hülsen conducted with Khalaf.
The FT is a business newspaper and is considered the bible of capitalism.
In the interview, Khalaf admits that her newspaper at times greatly exaggerated its economically liberal line, for example after the global financial crisis, when the »Financial Times« sang the song of praise for austerity.
Because austerity has contributed to the rise of right-wing populism in many European countries.
"Yes, that was a mistake, we went too far back then," says Khalaf.
“We supported the austerity policies of the British government of David Cameron and George Osborne.
The pandemic shows us the damage this policy has caused, for example in the health sector. "
»Financial Times« editor-in-chief: »We have gone too far«
Loser of the day ...
... are the so-called
lateral thinkers
.
Since the number of corona cases has shrunk and the vaccination rate has increased without any noticeable side effects, the movement has been losing its popularity.
How desperate the people behind the movement must be can be seen from the fact that they are now trying a very lousy act: They travel by bus to the flood zone and spread false news there.
The Koblenz police were forced to warn on Twitter that "vehicles with loudspeakers that resemble police emergency vehicles" were in the disaster area.
»The false report is spread over the loudspeaker that police and rescue workers are reducing the number of emergency services.
We are there all the time! "
And the police made it clear: "In coordination with the technical operations management, we will take decisive action against people who, under the guise of aid, misuse the situation for political purposes." The lateral thinkers certainly assume that Bill Gates was behind the flood disaster plugged.
The latest news from the night
THW hardly expects to find survivors anymore.
At least 170 people died in the devastating storms in Germany.
According to the THW Vice President, the number is likely to increase.
She also advises to rely more on sirens and loudspeakers.
US state of Arkansas: Judge stops abortion ban - for the time being.
Even after rape, abortions are said to be illegal: that's what an Arkansas law says.
Now a court stepped in - and soon the dispute ends up in the Supreme Court.
Anger from US virologist Anthony Fauci: "If anyone is lying here, Senator, it's you."
It was about the laboratory in Wuhan: A battle of words between virus expert Anthony Fauci and a Trump-loyal senator escalated before the US Congress.
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Insurance broker on natural disasters: "The premiums should increase by at least ten percent"
New rules and more funding: How to make your house climate-friendly - and the state pays
Eleven tips for saving: This is how you can take a cheaper (and better) vacation
"Financial Times" editor-in-chief Roula Khalaf: "We went too far"
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Melanie Amann
