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The situation in the morning: day of the palaver or day of decision?

2021-11-18T04:57:19.042Z


The corona numbers are skyrocketing, but the parties continue to argue about the right course. Angela Merkel calls the ruler Lukashenko again. And: Olaf Scholz's US twin. That is the situation on Thursday.


Union threatens to block the corona law

Germany stands at a fork in the road: are we experiencing the major political breakthrough in the fight against the

corona pandemic today

or is there even more confusion?

The Bundestag should first

vote

on the amended

Infection Protection Act of

the future traffic light coalition. The

Prime Minister's

Conference will then meet

to agree on uniform measures to contain the dramatic Covid situation. There are still arguments all over the place, there is a great deal of corona muddle - and it is unclear how this day will end.

The easiest part is probably the Prime Minister's Conference:

As things

stand

, she and Chancellor Angela Merkel could take decisions to

quickly expand

the administration of

booster vaccinations

. In addition, the pressure on vaccine muffle is to be increased further. The introduction of

uniform 2G rules is planned

. Participation in larger events or, for example, hotel and restaurant visits across the country would then only be possible for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered.

The tricky part is changing the Infection Protection Act.

The traffic light parties want a new home office obligation, the 3G rule in means of transport and a test obligation in risk institutions.

Above all, however, they have so far stuck to their plan

to let

the

"epidemic situation of national importance"

expire on November 25th.

The problem here: The Union wants to reject the traffic light plans in the Bundestag because it considers letting the epidemic situation run out as

"irresponsible"

in the current situation

.

The Union-led countries could also oppose the following decision in the Federal Council on Friday if the traffic light does not improve their law.

In the best case

, at the end of the day between the traffic lights, the federal government and the states, everything is mixed and kneaded together in a big compromise - and there is a sensible overall package to finally stop the pandemic.

In the worst case

, the outcome is patchy and politicians are now proving to be incapable of tackling this crisis together.

In such a situation, Americans say: "Pray for the best, prepare for the worst."

  • Prime ministers and traffic light parties in crisis: the corona shock

Merkel did it again

Can she do that? The Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel called the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko again. It was about the situation of migrants on the Belarusian-Polish border. Merkel emphasized the need for humanitarian

care and return opportunities

for those affected to take place in cooperation with the United Nations refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said government spokesman Steffen Seibert.

Even after Merkel's first phone call at the beginning of the week there was criticism because Lukashenko is no longer recognized by the EU as an official interlocutor.

This

time, too, the

Polish government

in

particular

reacted indignantly to the German Chancellor's phone call, which is why Merkel called Poland's

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki

to calm the mood

. She underlined the "full German solidarity with Poland".

Either way, the situation at the border seemed to have relaxed a little, at least in the meantime, possibly also a result of Merkel's telephone diplomacy.

Who knows?

According to Polish and Belarusian sources, the authorities in Belarus have started to bus some of the migrants from the border and provide them with accommodation.

  • Belarus: This is how Lukashenko's perfidious people smuggling works

Trump and his lunatics

In the USA, the processing of the

attack on the Capitol continued on January 6th

. The judiciary, in particular, is now cracking down on it. A Washington court tried another man on the matter,

Jacob Chansley

. Practically nobody knows the name, but everyone knows the photo: Chansley, an

ex-soldier from Arizona,

is the crazy guy who appeared in a shaman costume when supporters of Donald Trump stormed the Capitol.

Fur hat and horns

included. He is now in jail for 41 months for participating in the forcible storming of the Capitol. The judge remained just below the sentence required by the public prosecutor's office.

Chansley, who is also a follower of the

QAnon cult

, asked for forgiveness before the verdict was announced and protested that he regretted his act.

"I hope you see my good heart and my desire

to live

in the spirit of Gandhi and Jesus Christ

," he pleaded with the judge.

That left him cold, however.

"What you did was terrible," he said when the verdict was pronounced.

Just last week, a man from New Jersey was sentenced to more than three years in prison for participating in the storming.

He had assaulted a police officer.

In total, the authorities are investigating

the matter

against

more than 600 people

.

More convictions are likely to follow.

  • Attack on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: US Congress reprimands Trump supporters for violent videos

Winner of the day ...

… Are future Chancellor

Olaf Scholz

and US Senator

Chris Coons

.

You met for a conversation in Berlin;

Since then, a picture of the two has been providing amusing entertainment online.

Scholz and Coons look like twins who were separated after their birth and have now found each other again.

It is particularly nice that Coons distributed the doppelganger photo himself, but remained completely irony-free.

His dry comment: "I am pleased that I was able to meet with German partners to underline our strong and lasting relationships."

The latest news from the night

  • RKI boss warns of a "very bad Christmas":

    The boss of the Robert Koch Institute sees "dark" days approaching Germany, hundreds of people would die.

    In a video slot, he let his frustration with politics run wild

  • The Kaiser "is the Kaiser and I am only Markus":

    Markus Söder describes himself in "Maischberger" as "one of the friendlier CSU chairmen" - and denies any complicity in the Union bankruptcy.

    Even in the pandemic, he cannot find any faults in himself

  • Alleged email from Peng Shuai worries WTA:

    Peng Shuai has accused China's former vice president of rape and has been missing since then.

    The state media have now published an email that is said to have come from the tennis player

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

  • Fourth corona wave in Germany: Why other countries are more successful in the fight against the pandemic

  • Corona pandemic: What full intensive care units mean for care in the clinics

  • German autumn 1977: Mr. Schelkmann and the terror

  • Star conductor Kent Nagano: "Beethoven's fifth with a disco beat: I don't understand that"

I wish you a good start to the day.

Your Roland Nelles

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-11-18

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