News of the day: European Union, "Bild" newspaper, voting rights

1. Investing in the future

The coalition negotiations between the SPD, FDP and the Greens will begin this week.

During their explorations, the traffic light parties agreed on a revision of the electoral law: "We want to lower the voting age for the elections to the German Bundestag and European Parliament to 16 years," says the result paper.

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Young visitors to the Reichstag dome in 2011

Photo: imago stock & people / IMAGO

But now it turns out that the candy for the young causes toothache for most of the country's citizens.

More than two thirds of Germans oppose lowering the voting age to 16 years.

This was the result of a survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL.

According to this, only 28 percent are in favor of voting at 16.

It is surprising that there is no clear majority of those in favor of electoral law reform even in the age group of 16 to 29 year olds.

My colleague Sophie Garbe believes that the low approval ratings among young people are related to their not particularly keen interest in political processes.

"In the age group, usually only around half of those surveyed state that they are concerned with politics a lot," she says.

In any case, the commitment of the Ampel coalition to lower the voting age could be an election gift that is intended to bring joy not so much to the young, but to one's own people. The commitment of the Greens and the FDP in the traffic light to lower the voting age could be a kind of political investment in the future, especially for these two, says my colleague Sebastian Fischer, head of our capital city office. Because among first-time and young voters, the Greens and FDP performed best in the last federal election. If 16 to 18-year-olds are also allowed to vote in the future, structural advantages for green-yellow can be expected - as of today.

In general, it is not so unusual for new coalition constellations to deal with the right to vote.

Sebastian recalls the first grand coalition from 1966. At that time, the Union and the SPD contemplated introducing majority voting based on the British model.

That would probably have kicked out the FDP.

In the end, the SPD shrank.

• Read the full story here: Large majority against voting from 16

2.

"Image"

How does success change people?

The writer Wladimir Kaminer answers the SPIEGEL questionnaire about the Frankfurt Book Fair: "If you ask me: Success makes every nice person an asshole."

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Julian Reichelt: It was a special case even for "image" conditions

Photo: Marco Urban

I have no idea whether »Bild« editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt is a nice person. He was successful - at least until last night. Around 6 p.m., his employer, Axel Springer, announced that Reichelt had been relieved of his duties with immediate effect: “As a result of press research, the company had gained new insights into the current behavior of Julian Reichelt in the last few days.” SPIEGEL had that too Publishing house yesterday confronted with new findings and published in a report.

The story of my colleagues Marcus Engert, Katrin Langhans, Juliane Löffler, Daniel Drepper, Isabell Hülsen, Alexander Kühn, Martin U. Müller and Anton Rainer describes Julian Reichelt as a man who does not separate the private from the professional.

According to SPIEGEL information, there was actually another sexual relationship between Reichelt and an employee who reports to him.

"Bird, promote, fire," was how DER SPIEGEL described the Reichelt principle back in March of this year.

Anton Rainer from the SPIEGEL economic department therefore considers Reichelt's forced withdrawal to be a "disempowerment that comes months too late."

He considers the assurances of the Springer Verlag that they have only now gained “new knowledge” about Reichelt's behavior as a “ridiculous spectacle”.

• Read the full story here: Why Julian Reichelt had to go

3. Verbal arms race

The foundation of the European Union is based on the principle that common EU case law takes precedence over that of its member states.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, however, thinks: "The EU's competencies have their limits, we can no longer remain silent when they are exceeded."

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Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in front of the EU Parliament in Strasbourg

Photo:

Ronald Wittek / dpa

A ruling by the politically occupied Warsaw Constitutional Tribunal, issued at the request of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, recently declared key parts of the EU treaty to be incompatible with the national constitution.

That the Poles could leave the EU after the British has since been considered a possible scenario.

In any case, the current conflict does not bode well for the future of Europe.

At the moment there is a kind of verbal arms race going on on both sides.

In her speech to the Strasbourg Parliament today, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU would “act” to prevent Poland from undermining the Union's values ​​and cohesion.

She threatened Poland with severe sanctions.

Mateusz Morawiecki, for his part, accused the European partners of "blackmail".

"Since Tuesday there is no longer any doubt that the EU and Poland are sliding into a dispute in which both sides can only lose," writes my Brussels SPIEGEL colleague Ralf Neukirch.

In his comment, he calls on the EU: "Brake your frustration!"

In Germany, the EU is seen primarily as "a project for reconciliation with the alleged hereditary enemy France."

The reconciliation with Poland plays a subordinate role in the consciousness of many Germans.

"It is no less important," writes Neukirch.

He rightly points out: “Germans brought unimaginable suffering to Poland during World War II.

The permanent feeling of victimization and the nationalism of the Polish government that appeared yesterday is also a result of German atrocities. "

• Read more here: Poland's government accuses the EU of "blackmail"

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What else is important today

• The SPD, Greens and FDP are planning 22 working groups:

  the government of the three traffic light partners should be on the trail by Christmas.

  Now the titles of the working groups with which the course is to be set have been determined.

• Reports of parties with prostitutes in the plenary hall - Landtag examines allegations:

  Did an AfD member organize "drinking bouts" and parties with prostitutes in Schwerin Castle?

  The state administration is investigating - but initially only against the security service of the house.

• Frankfurt-Hahn Airport is insolvent:

  Before the corona crisis, Frankfurt-Hahn was by its own account the tenth largest passenger airport in Germany - now the airport is insolvent.

  This was announced by the Bad Kreuznach District Court.

• Trump sues committee to storm the US Capitol:

  The role of Donald Trump comes into focus when coming to terms with the events of January 6th.

  Now the investigative committee wants to see papers from the White House.

  But the ex-president is resisting.

• Medium-sized companies warn of drastic consequences:

  Diesel has never been more expensive in Germany.

  The middle class laments the "price explosion": It represents a massive burden on the economy - and endangers jobs, growth and prosperity.

What we recommend today at SPIEGEL +

• Airbnb on wheels:

  Rent your own car and earn money with it: In America, the pandemic has given this business a boom.

  The start-up Turo now even wants to go public.

• "An enormous acceleration of the war":

  A mysterious rocket launch in China points to far advanced experiments with a dangerous and revolutionary weapon against which no defense system is effective.

  Is a new arms race looming?

• "And suddenly ten 15-year-olds are filming in my car":

  Varion, UnsympathischTV and Trymacs stand for a new generation of entertainers on the Internet.

  Here youTubers and streamers talk about their new podcast, about money and about fans who go too far.

Which is less important today

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Apple's new high-end product: the polishing cloth

Photo:

Apple

• Apple has a new flagship product:

  yesterday evening the company introduced new, super-fast MacBook Pro computers.

  For my colleague Patrick Beuth, however, the star of the evening is a new type of product for only 25 euros, which was not published on the big stage, but on the Apple website.

  You can use it to "gently and thoroughly clean any Apple display, including nanotexture glass," they say.

  It is an Apple polishing cloth.

  Or as Patrick suggests: "iLappen".

Typo of the day

, corrected in the meantime: "This will soon be possible again in Hamburg - but only for vaccinated people and genesis."

Cartoon of the day:

Minskermann makes it possible

And tonight?

In honor of the memory of the soprano Edita Gruberová, who died yesterday at the age of 74, I recommend a visit to the opera.

The Bavarian State Opera in Munich, where Gruberová celebrated her departure from the stage in March 2019, is playing Puccini's Tosca today.

However, there are only seats in very high price categories.

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Edita Gruberová (picture from 2013): In 1970 she sang for the first time at the Vienna State Opera in Mozart's »Magic Flute«

Photo:

Uli Deck / dpa

I will therefore listen to the aria of the Queen of the Night on an Apple player (which I have freed from viruses and other surface contaminants in advance with the iLab of my choice).

In 1970 Gruberová sang the part from Mozart's "Magic Flute" for the first time at the Vienna State Opera.

It says: "

In this sense: have a nice evening.

Sincerely,

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