Today we ask ourselves why politicians remain largely inactive in the fight against Corona, why the EU is in a quandary with the refugees from Belarus and how self-confident the average Sauerlander is.
Failure to provide assistance
The situation is actually clear:
The number of new corona infections is increasing, and with it the number of occupied intensive care beds, and with it the number of deaths.
This will not change if politicians do not take massive action against it, if the vaccination rate does not finally improve.
Enlarge image
Empty vaccination center (symbol image)
Photo: Moritz Frankenberg / picture alliance / dpa
What do we hear from politics?
Nothing from Olaf Scholz, presumably the next chancellor.
From Angela Merkel, the executive chancellor, only that she was in favor of uniform measures and had "sympathy" for a conference with the prime minister.
A week ago, the chairman of the conference of ministers presidents, the North Rhine-Westphalian state chief Hendrik Wüst, made the proposal to convene such a conference, nothing more since then.
The prime ministers have very different opinions on the usefulness of such a conference and the usefulness of 2G or 3G or 2Gplus or 3Gplus rules, depending on how explosive the situation in their country is.
From the traffic light the plan to continue to guarantee the legal basis for corona measures in a new draft law, even if the epidemic emergency of national scope expires on November 25th.
The bill now has to go to the Bundestag and probably next week to the Bundesrat, so it still takes a while.
The FDP promised that there would be no compulsory vaccination, not even for certain professional groups such as hospital and nursing staff.
It is once again a promise of what will not come.
In other words: precious little changes at the national political level.
This is nothing more than
failure to provide assistance to a health system
that keeps sounding loud alarms.
There is a sentence that makes it very clear what should be done now.
It reads: "Before the 2G rule came into force in Austria, many vaccination stations were very popular at the weekend."
If you want to increase the vaccination rate in Germany, the nationwide introduction of 2G seems to me the most promising way.
The only thing is that politicians don't dare to take it.
Read here how dissatisfaction among Germans with corona policy is growing
Perfidious power poker
Migration researcher Gerald Knaus has already described it as the "greatest moral and legal crisis in European border management," but
what is currently happening on the Polish-Belarusian border
could turn into a real
humanitarian catastrophe
.
Thousands of migrants are wedged between Belarusian and Polish border guards who are trying by all means to prevent them from moving in one direction or the other.
These means also include physical violence.
The Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is playing perfidious power poker with the West, it is a revenge for its sanctions.
People from the Middle East are transported to Minsk on charter flights in order to smuggle them from there across the borders to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia into the EU.
Poland and Lithuania are fending off the influx with great force and are pushing the refugees back to Belarus.
The Polish parliament recently legalized these so-called pushbacks, which violate EU law and the Geneva Refugee Convention.
No solution to the problem can be seen,
Europe is in a dilemma
.
On the one hand, it would be manageable for the EU to simply take in the still manageable number of refugees in order to calmly decide on their asylum applications.
On the other hand, such a generous admission would only encourage Lukashenko and other EU enemies to push the refugee numbers even higher - when would the end of willingness to admit be reached?
When will we not be able to do that anymore?
Nevertheless: Before people die in the forests of the border area, the European Union and thus every member state is obliged, for humanitarian reasons, to prevent this.
In the medium term, this drama must be another
wake-up call for the EU
.
With a common external border, the EU countries must agree on a common asylum system and thus also on a system in which refugees can be distributed fairly among the member states.
This also includes rapid asylum procedures at the EU's external borders.
The ideas and concepts are there.
The only thing missing is the ability to come to an agreement.
So far, ten dead refugees have officially been counted in the border area.
In truth, there are probably many more.
You can read a dramatic report from the border area here.
No fate, just coincidence
The
Nov. 9
has a special place in German history without a doubt.
On November 9, 1848 at 7:30 a.m. Robert Blum, one of the figures of the failed 1848 revolution, was shot in Vienna.
On November 9, 1918, Philipp Scheidemann proclaimed the first German Republic.
On November 9, 1923, Adolf Hitler's attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government and the Reich government in a coup failed.
On November 9, 1938, Jewish shops and synagogues burned during the Reichspogromnacht.
The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
So is November 9th a fateful day in Germany, as they like to say?
All nonsense, said the Freiburg historian Ulrich Herbert once in an interview with Deutschlandfunk.
The coincidence of many significant events on one date is rather pure coincidence.
Except for one case: Since the failed Hitler putsch in 1923, November 9th was considered an important date by the National Socialists.
The fact that the Reichspogromnacht took place on November 9, of all places, does not have to be a coincidence.
Today in Berlin there are both commemorative events for the fall of the Berlin Wall and for the Reichspogromnacht, with many schoolchildren taking part.
How GDR functionary Günter Schabowski brought the wall down in one sentence.
Read his obituary.
"Sauerland, my heart beats for the Sauerland
"
Thanks to the band »Zoff«, we have known since the eighties
that the
Sauerland is a special region in Germany
(»Where the dung heaps smoke, there are no palm trees«). And at least since Friedrich Merz first appeared in the federal political landscape, it has also been clear that the Sauerland is a good breeding ground for political personalities with a certain self-confidence: Federal President Heinrich Lübke came from there, the former Saxon Prime Minister Georg Milbradt, and also Franz Müntefering was born in the Hochsauerlandkreis.
So it's almost surprising that there are only now efforts to help the region on federal level to more shine and influence: Tonight which are
"Sauerland message"
to the Parliamentary society honor and invites all 13 members of parliament from the Region for a parliamentary evening.
The association, a network of entrepreneurs, personalities and institutions from the Sauerland, is still quite young and currently has around 40 members.
But you hope, says managing director Michael Herma, to grow quite quickly, and that is what the evening is intended for.
SPD MP Dirk Wiese is the patron of the event.
"Today, Tuesday, the Sauerland enters the diplomatic parquet in the capital," says Wiese.
»The› Sauerland Embassy ‹brings a piece of home to the Spree.
The large Sauerland community has a point of contact.
In the coming weeks, a strong network of politicians, entrepreneurs, multipliers and other so-called ›Exile Sauerlanders‹ who have found their second home forever or temporarily in Berlin should emerge. «
Wiese hardly minds that one of the most prominent representatives comes from the political opponent.
»Friedrich Merz is of course also there.
But one thing is also clear: The Sauerland is far too beautiful and diverse to just be black. "
Merz, the Easy Rider from the Sauerland?
Read a story about truth and myth about Friedrich Merz's youth in the Sauerland.
It is 21 years old, but still very readable.
Whiskers of the day ...
... is Tesla boss
Elon Musk
.
On Sunday he asked his more than 60 million followers on Twitter whether he should sell ten percent of his stake in the most valuable car company.
"I will submit to the result, no matter how it turns out," promised Musk in another tweet.
What looked like a selfless act - legitimized quasi-democratically - was actually a pragmatic act that Musk would probably have had to do anyway - to pay his taxes.
My colleague Alexander Demling wrote down the sober details behind the shrill Twitter campaign very clearly.
The latest news from the night
Horst Seehofer calls for the EU to intervene in the refugee dispute with Belarus:
The situation on the EU's external border with Belarus is coming to a head - thousands of migrants want to force the transfer.
Now the Federal Minister of the Interior has made the European Union responsible.
Saskia Esken insists on the schedule during coalition negotiations:
The traffic light negotiations cause displeasure among some of those involved.
But the SPD chairwoman remains: Olaf Scholz becomes chancellor to Nikolaus.
Embryos swapped - parents sue fertility clinic:
Thanks to artificial insemination, a woman in California had a girl.
A few weeks later it turned out - she had given birth to the baby of strange parents.
Now she speaks publicly about the "trauma"
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I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Martin Knobbe