1.
You peoples of the world, hit this city
Now they all hit Berlin again, my hometown.
Why is no one talking about Rüsselsheim, where the district election apparently has to be repeated?
The »FAZ« writes:
"More than 800 postal voting documents were requested using just one email address."
More than 300 signatures on the ballot papers were not identical to the signatures available at the residents' registration office.
In around 300 cases, the election documents were signed in block letters.
Yes, even in the election for the Berlin House of Representatives on September 26, there were irregularities in 207 of 2,257 polling stations.
Sometimes there were missing ballots, sometimes the wrong ones, sometimes the helpers, apparently overwhelmed, no longer handed out any papers, even though they still had some.
Sometimes those willing to vote had to wait a long time.
This was reported by the state election officer Petra Michaelis today.
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Polling station in Berlin
Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / picture alliance / dpa
207 of 2257: "That is a number that must frighten us all, and must also annoy us," said Michaelis. On the one hand. On the other hand, she could state that the election in over 2000 polling stations went off without any problems. Half wild, right? Stepped into the dog poop with one shoe but the other is still clean? Or as Franziska Giffey would say: straighten the crown, keep walking? (Incidentally, the SPD candidate now wants to form a coalition with the Left and the Greens to become the governing mayor, the FDP seems to be out of the running.)
No, this time what we Berliners lie to ourselves as the art of improvisation, which is called incompetence in the rest of the country, could actually have consequences: The state election control wants to appeal the results.
In two constituencies, the violations were so serious that they could affect the distribution of mandates.
You can now redial there.
However, the Constitutional Court has to decide on this.
It's about...
constituency 6 in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf: Here an SPD politician was first chosen as the winner, with eight votes ahead, then the count was re-counted and the Green candidate was ahead with 23 votes;
and around constituency 1 in Mahrzahn-Hellersdorf, where an AfD parliamentarian defended his seat and 70 votes were ahead of the SPD candidate.
As the colleagues from the »Tagesspiegel« report, the problems didn't just start on election day. Accordingly, insiders describe that election officer Michaelis (incidentally the only one who announced her resignation because of the chaos) warned early on and pointed out impending problems. The best example: »The postal voting documents are packed manually by temporary workers and then handed over to PIN AG. With almost a million requested documents, errors occur in piecework. In 30 years the State of Berlin has not been able to replace this work with a reliable machine. "
A little over 30 years ago I learned to "write by ear" in West Berlin, even if the method was not yet officially called that.
Mistakes weren't mistakes, but »learning opportunities«, to which the teachers, who of course we said, carefully pointed out to us.
So Berlin, you have enough learning opportunities, use them.
And now back to Rüsselsheim, please.
Read more here
2.
China's old friend
Everyone says goodbye to Angela Merkel.
Now China has given her a special honor: "You are an old friend of the Chinese people," Xi Jinping told the Chancellor, who gave him a friendly wink on a video link on Wednesday.
“The Chinese value love and sincerity.
We won't forget our old friend. "
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Merkel and Xi Jinping
Photo: Michael Kappeler / picture alliance / dpa
"Zhongguo renminde laopengyou," an old friend of the Chinese people, is "an honorary title that not only conveys solidarity, but also political connotations," as my colleague Georg Fahrion, our correspondent in Beijing, reports. China's powerful people have probably used the term for friends abroad around 600 times. They include anti-colonial and socialist revolutionaries such as the Cuban Fidel Castro, Zimbabwe's liberation fighter and later dictator Robert Mugabe, and the Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. But also Richard Nixon. With his visit to the People's Republic in 1972, the US president, an ardent anti-communist, laid the foundation for the normalization of bilateral relations - in order to benefit from China's alienation from the Soviet Union that had set in after Stalin's death.(Georg explains more about the background to the term here.)
In Germany tomorrow a whole magazine about Merkel will be published, 120 pages, 16 authors over 16 years, 16 "We can do it" stickers are included.
The best idea from my point of view: The 250 breaking news with "Merkel" in the headline, which the news agency dpa has sent out since the Chancellor took office, are enclosed as a separate issue.
"A little piece of contemporary history" calls it magazine maker Oliver Wurm, who already published the Basic Law as a magazine.
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What remains of the Merkel era?
Photo: Annette Riedl / dpa
A quick chat interview with the colleague:
SPIEGEL:
Why your own Merkel magazine?
Wurm:
At the end of the New Year's address in 2021, when Angela Merkel practically said goodbye, I felt the impulse to put these 16 Merkel years in a magazine.
The magazine should appear 100 days before the federal election, as the first of the many reviews to be expected.
In the midst of the corona waves, however, no conclusion was possible.
Then it should come 14 days before the election, but in the face of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, I postponed the pressure slot a second time.
SPIEGEL:
The greatest difficulty?
Wurm:
The great trick is actually not to allow yourself to be dissuaded from your own idea.
SPIEGEL:
Which breaking news from Merkel surprised you?
Wurm:
I just read it away page by page, there was something almost zen-like about it.
The reports show again the long distance Ms. Merkel has made.
Nobody surprised me in that sense.
It's more like small mental excursions.
»December 18, 2010: Merkel on a quick visit to Afghanistan.
(...) She is accompanied by Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg ... «- The high-flyer, what is he actually doing today?
SPIEGEL also has a special issue from the Biography series: The Merkel era - balance sheet of a chancellorship.
But without a sticker.
You can find it here.
3.
Junge Union is looking for speakers (m / m / m)
Oha, CSU boss Markus Söder is not coming to Münster for the Junge Union's »Germany Day«.
Contrary to what was originally announced, Söder will instead take part in a CSU basic conference in Bavaria on Saturday.
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Photo: Philipp von Ditfurth / picture alliance / dpa
Who else will appear at the “Germany Day”?
According to the program, it's about as diverse as a fraternity in Bonn in the 1950s.
Speaking on Friday: Tilman Kuban, Federal Chairman of the Junge Union, Markus Lewe, Lord Mayor of Münster, Friedrich Merz, announced only as Vice President of the Economic Council of the CDU, and Ralph Brinkhaus, Chairman of the parliamentary group in the Bundestag.
Armin Laschet is scheduled for Saturday morning, along with other keynote speakers: Paul Ziemiak and Markus Blume, the general secretaries of the CDU and CSU.
And on Sunday Health Minister Jens Spahn.
Maybe the Junge Union wants to get around the hated gender?
But hey, Dorothee Bär and Yvonne Magwas can be found under one item on the program.
It's called: »PITCH 2.0 - Your plan for a new beginning«.
More about the future of the CDU here: Young executives wanted (f / m / d)
What else is important today
Investigators assume an act of terrorism:
After an archer killed five people in the Norwegian city of Kongsberg, investigators speak of a suspected terrorist attack.
This was announced by the secret service.
The motive remains unclear.
Surcharge for green electricity sinks to 3.7 cents:
Germany's consumers can hope for relief: The surcharge with which they finance the expansion of renewable energies through their electricity bill falls by 2.8 cents per kilowatt hour, according to SPIEGEL information.
The urban population is no longer growing:
Since 2011, the number of people living in large cities has increased.
But this development is now ending, possibly due to the corona crisis - and especially in an age group.
What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +
And suddenly MP Kurz makes a government
statement
:
On his first day in a new role, Sebastian Kurz is not on Parliament's list of speakers.
Surprisingly, he speaks - as allegations of an extinguishing operation in the government headquarters.
Why it would be dangerous to legalize
cannabis
:
Cannabis damages the brain - especially in adolescents.
The Ulm psychiatrist Maximilian Gahr therefore warns against unrestricted legalization of the drug.
Why the defensive star is threatened with prison:
He was banned from contact with his partner, then he went through a passport control with her: The Bayern defender is threatened with prison for disregarding the Spanish justice system - in just a few days.
Which is less important today
Hurz trips:
Hape Kerkeling
, 56, comes back from his show break, as the broadcaster Vox announced.
Accordingly, the entertainer will be featured in a travel series from November 21st.
In “Hape and the 7 Dwarf States” he is to travel to Andorra, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican.
He is quoted with the following sentences: »During the pandemic, my hunger for the stage and television suddenly increased again.
And after a seven-year break from TV, I had one or the other idea in my head that I wanted to realize. "
Typo of the day
, now corrected: "The relationship between the Turkish president and his bankers is considered tense."
Cartoon of the day:
smoking break
And tonight?
Could they go to the cinema again and see the Hollywood knight drama "The Last Duel", which my colleague Wolfgang Höbel recommends.
First, because Matt Damon and Adam Driver play two extraordinarily dissimilar heroes with strange hairstyles who desire a strong and much smarter woman (played by Jodie Comer).
Second, because here a story is portrayed in a very exciting way and in magnificent, gloomy pictures from various angles, as we know it from classic films like »Rashomon«.
And third, because the great director Ridley Scott makes an "unexpected, serious, but astonishingly witty contribution to the current gender discourse on 'MeToo' and similar controversial topics," as Wolfgang finds it.
(You can find the full review here.)
Good Knight, and Good Luck.
Sincerely
yours, Oliver Trenkamp
Here you can order the "Lage am Abend" by email.
