Today it's about the non-resignation of Sebastian Kurz, about the partial resignation of Armin Laschet.
And the challenges for a traffic light coalition.
House of short
More beautiful than Sebastian Kurz should have done, you can actually not demonstrate our poll-horny media democracy.
If the allegations are correct,
Kurz or his supporters are said to have ordered advantageous surveys from demoscopes, or better: bought them.
With taxpayers' money.
The hype of the supposedly artificially prettied polls then gave rise to the momentum that made Kurz head of a new, gutted Austrian People's Party.
And finally to the head of the whole country.
If the allegations are correct, this discussion would show
how manipulable democracies are
, which accord more and more poll-gossips ever greater importance in the assessment of political processes.
I would have liked to have invented the storyline of the short posse for the script of my political series, which I want to finish one day.
But now it has apparently been stolen from reality.
Austria's Chancellor under suspicion of corruption: "I very much hope that there was something in return: reporting"
Will the short hype even end in Germany?
Yesterday I kept thinking of all the short-drunk Union politicians
who busily emulated the supposed jack
-of-all-trades
in Vienna
, like Jens Spahn, among others, at his election victory.
And wanted to be the German Kurz.
Or to journalists who come up every month with the romantic longing question: "Why don't we have one like that?" ("Bild" newspaper, October 2017)
Spahn celebrated the closeness and friendship with Kurz almost feverishly and happily in public.
Markus Söder tried to copy Kurz.
General Secretary Paul Ziemiak, Union parliamentary group Vice Carsten Linnemann or Friedrich Merz gave brief hymns.
Even Philipp Amthor did not contradict when he was referred to as "Sebastian Kurz of the North".
You can see in Austria "that Sebastian Kurz also manages, as a young conservative politician, to take first place among the younger ones," the young conservative politician Tilman Kuban declared languidly just a few days ago.
In a tweet, however, Kuban made it clear that he had by no means "demanded a German Sebastian Kurz".
Meanwhile, Kurz does not think about resigning.
His previous coalition partner, the Greens, are wrestling with whether and when to finally terminate the coalition with Kurz's party.
I believe: Even the greatest survey will no longer save Kurz, the most successful representative of so-called feschism to date.
And maybe you should think again about the bombastic polls for Markus Söder.
Briefly in the crisis: resignation, new elections, government of experts - what's next in Vienna?
Armins Laschet's partial withdrawal
Armin Laschet has chosen an innovative form of retreat.
He wants to help shape the process for a new beginning within the CDU, at the end of which he will also end as CDU chairman. Officially, however, he is still available as Federal Chancellor. At least as a contact for the chancellorship, should the traffic light probes fail and someone should knock again at the Union. So much for the current level of confusion.
In the end, Laschet is unlikely to become chancellor. His election campaign was too bad for that, the result was too bad for that.
Nevertheless, I consider the way many party friends deal with Armin Laschet to be egomaniacal, cowardly and mendacious. You didn't really support him in the election campaign. And after the election did everything possible to torpedo his Jamaica dreams. Mostly not openly, but backwards, via secret detours such as piercing through exploratory talks.
The truth of the sad story of Armin Laschet also includes: He could easily have become chancellor - despite all his own mistakes, despite the chronic lack of content and exhaustion of his party.
If the CSU and its boss, Markus Söder, had accepted that Söder was not a candidate for chancellor, if they hadn't constantly put their arrogance and spite on the record, the Union would almost certainly have become the strongest force again - and thus would have placed the chancellor.
But a party that is so obviously at odds will not be elected.
Or just 24.1 percent.
Announced Laschet withdrawal: brutally failed
No more traffic light jokes, please!
All the gags in terms of traffic light government and colors are now done. For my taste. Not because of: "sees red" or "sees green" or something. This means that the next stage in the rapprochement of this alliance, which was recently considered highly unlikely, can begin. After the preliminary sounding phase, a normal sounding lasting several hours took place yesterday, because next week there will even be a more stringent sounding. Maybe at some point there will even be preliminary coalition negotiations.
What the goal of such an alliance should be is already clear to me: repair.
First of all.
The country also needs a huge push for modernization - especially in terms of climate protection, infrastructure, and education.
Where it is particularly about the freedom rights and development opportunities of younger people.
And socio-politically, the window would have to be opened again.
This is only possible if the traffic light parties consider joint success to be more important than the small to small-scale gains among each other.
Explorations by the SPD, Greens and FDP: Here comes the traffic light
Loser of the day ...
... is the
civil way of dealing with one another
. Yesterday, Omid Nouripour was my guest in the “Top Talk” on SPIEGEL.de. The foreign policy spokesman for the Greens told me, among other things, about his moving family history. When he was 13 years old, his parents fled with him from the mullahs in Iran and came to Germany. It was an escape from unbelievable cruelty and harassment.
In the end I asked him if he would like to become Germany's foreign minister.
"No," said Nouripour firmly.
As with all politicians with a migration background, his job description included: hate mail, threats.
That is why he has often been "classified" by security services, that is, he was monitored by bodyguards.
"It's no fun," said Nouripour.
"When you have children, when you have a family yourself that constantly has to watch how you move - that is not a desirable state of life." All of this is understandable, especially from his point of view.
It is still bitter.
The latest news from the night
Donald Trump wants to forbid ex-advisors from making a statement:
Four former Donald Trump advisers are supposed to answer questions from the Committee on the Capitol Storm - and have been summoned.
The former president would like to prevent such a statement
Merz excludes renewed candidacy with a fight vote:
Friedrich Merz was twice defeated in the candidacy for the CDU party chairmanship.
Now the politician makes it clear: He does not want to face a fight vote again.
But he continues to toying with the post
Texas is appealing the suspension of the abortion ban:
The strictest abortion law in the United States was in effect in Texas since September 1 - until a federal judge intervened this week.
But the state authorities do not want to accept the decision
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
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Dirty stock deals at the US Federal Reserve: Hunting the hawks
Introduction to the secrets of power: The first days of dock worker Uwe Schmidt in the Bundestag
Parents in the optimization mania: We imperfections
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Markus Feldenkirchen
