Today it is about the questions of why Angela Merkel ultimately cared too little about the pandemic, why the inhabitants of the Alpine regions should research the causes of the refusal to vaccinate and who actually Helge Braun is and wants to be.
Merkel's messed up farewell
This afternoon, Chancellor
Angela Merkel
will visit a learning center promoting digital education for young people.
She is still hardworking, in addition to routine appointments, one farewell follows the next.
Merkel is doing what she has set out to do.
To take a self-determined farewell and thus to show that it is possible: not to cling to the office, to prepare the newcomer.
She coordinates with her Vice Chancellor and likely successor, Olaf Scholz, demonstratively enters the Bundestag with him, and takes him to international meetings.
Merkel said goodbye to the Pope and the French President in front of everyone; she wanted to be a role model with this too.
It will be part of the tragedy of her chancellorship that her noble project helped to provoke a crisis.
Germany is once again badly prepared for the next corona wave.
RKI boss Lothar Wieler speaks of a "national emergency"
. It is already questionable whether the resolutions of the Prime Minister's Conference last Thursday are still sufficient to cope with the crisis.
Merkel should have countered the crisis in a completely different way - regardless of country skills - instead of going on a farewell tour. Yes, she wanted to make it easy for her successors,
but in fact, with her reluctance, she also damaged the possible traffic light coalition
. SPIEGEL's capital city office manager Martin Knobbe writes in the editorial: "The apex of the fourth wave could hit the country around Christmas, by then the new government will probably be in office for three weeks" - "The magic of the start of the traffic lights has already faded."
There would have been opportunities for Merkel to say goodbye with dignity and at the same time to take the lead in the corona crisis.
For example, she could have gone to see the French President, but at the same time refused the Pope - with reference to the impending emergency in the country.
It would have been understood that not everything can be done at once.
And then it would have been the perfect farewell.
The alpine drama
The lockdown in Austria comes into effect today.
For the fourth time since the beginning of the pandemic, extensive restrictions apply.
In addition, the government has announced that vaccinations will be compulsory, and a corresponding law is currently being drawn up, and it will come into force on February 1st of next year.
On Saturday, however, according to the authorities, almost 40,000 people demonstrated against lockdown and mandatory vaccination.
Tough measures here, protests there - it takes a deeper examination of the cultural causes of vaccination refusal to really change something.
The Alpine regions (also in Germany and Switzerland) have a problem, the numbers speak for themselves.
On Friday there was an interesting interview with the religious scholar Michael Blume in the »Süddeutsche Zeitung«.
He pointed to the strong federal traditions on the one hand and to "a strong connection to conspiracy myths" on the other.
Corona demos in Vienna
Helge - who?
This afternoon, the incumbent Chancellor Helge Braun is expected at the federal press conference, he will also be asked about his application for the CDU chairmanship. The problem here will probably not be that Braun remains guilty of answers, but that it is difficult to deduce from his answers what kind of person he is, where his drive comes from, where his political passions lie.
Among the applicants for the party chairmanship, Braun is considered the great stranger
, although he managed Merkel's government for years. In the election for the party chairmanship, Braun will only have a chance if he becomes more tangible as a person.
Three of my colleagues from the capital city office had a SPIEGEL conversation with Braun, which is informative in many ways: The head of the Chancellery, who is still in office, blames the current Corona misery on the traffic light parties who are not yet in office, he says: » The traffic light coalition asked us to be restrained. «In the conversation he appears to be ostensibly passionate, saying sentences like» I love the CDU «, but, despite persistent follow-up, does not explain where this love comes from.
There are topics with which Braun could score - but so far he doesn't really want to take advantage of these opportunities.
DER SPIEGEL asks: »Merz doesn't think much of the women's quota.
Where are you in the debate? «.
Braun replies: "I am in favor of us in the CDU gradually improving the participation of women as the compromise found by our structural committee provides."
Aha.
Loser of the day ...
... are already the
Christmas markets
.
On Friday there was a service for the opening of the 587th Striezelmarkt in Dresden in the diaries for today.
On Friday evening, however, the Saxon state government presented the new Corona Protection Ordinance, which will apply in the country from today and which prohibits all Christmas markets, including the Striezelmarkt.
There will be no Christmas markets in Bavaria either.
In Dortmund the lights on the 45 meter high Christmas tree should be turned on this evening, but now the city wants to avoid crowds, the organizers are moving the ceremony online.
Under the motto “The digital ritual”, the audience can watch the mayor switch on the tree remotely in the live stream.
Last year's tree, composed of around 1,600 spruce trees from the Sauerland, was dismantled soon after it was erected - because of the pandemic.
Every year again?
The latest news from the night
Car races in the Christmas parade - several dead and 23 injured:
Witnesses report of an off-road vehicle that drove at high speed into a group of people: In an incident near Milwaukee, there were several fatalities and numerous injuries
Right-wing populist of German origin is ahead in the election in Chile:
According to projections, the ultra-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast will take the lead in the presidential election in Chile.
A final decision will probably only be made in the runoff election
Two of the 17 hostages released:
The "400 Mawozo" gang demanded one million dollars for each hostage.
Apparently two of the North American missionaries in Haiti are now free
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Green politician Anna Lührmann: There was only one option - back to the Bundestag
Bakery is said to have survived the air raid in 1942: The puzzle of the cake from the war
I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Susanne Beyer
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