Today we ask ourselves how the exploding corona infections can be got under control, we are tracking down the first substantive anger in the future traffic light coalition, and we are identifying a possible break in the planned left-wing alliance in Berlin.
Self-made lockdown as a solution?
Do you feel the same?
I'm so tired of it, I don't want to hear any more.
Exploding numbers of infections, intensive care units at the limit, more and more deaths, a new, "worrying" virus variant.
But it doesn't help to close your eyes.
The next Corona winter is imminent.
And it gets dark.
What can be done to prevent a catastrophe?
While the fourth wave piles up higher and higher, while terminally ill Covid patients are flown across Germany, while experts are puzzling over how dangerous Omikron really is, German politics between the Chancellor and not-yet-Chancellor is discussing whether the country should be one
Compulsory vaccination
or a renewed
lockdown
(also for vaccinated persons).
The new Corona crisis team is supposed to start work this week, under the direction of a Bundeswehr general.
In the meantime, Olaf Scholz emphasizes that there is
"nothing that cannot be taken into account"
.
But whether he actually means a lockdown and how this could be implemented after the traffic light change in the Infection Protection Act is open.
My favorite suggestion of the weekend comes from Lower Saxony's SPD Prime Minister Stephan Weil: He doesn't rule out a lockdown, but if so, then
»More like the time after Christmas, when it is usually holidays and families meet«.
"Extended Christmas
rest
" is
what Weil calls it - after the Easter rest was already a real success story.
And until then we let tens of thousands of football fans into the stadium week after week (Potzblitz! Many of them don't even wear a mask!)?
Celebrate a hearty Christmas party?
And invite dear relatives to the Christmas goose?
The Federal President also spoke up at the weekend.
In a guest post for the "BamS", Frank-Walter Steinmeier appealed to people to voluntarily limit their contacts.
I do not know whether that is exactly what he had in mind, but perhaps it is the right, the only way at this time:
if politicians cannot or will not act quickly enough, then reasonable citizens should not wait for it.
Debate about compulsory vaccination: Of people who fall and who sink
First traffic light failure
The SPD wants to hear from its members how they think about the coalition agreement at the first of two digital conferences on Monday.
At the weekend, Olaf Scholz was able to find out that not all comrades break out into cheers just because their party is again chancellor after 16 years of hardship.
The Jusos nagged happily at the pact with the Greens and the FDP, for example about future migration policy ("just shit").
The future traffic light boss has been warned.
But he also knows: In the end, only one party congress has to approve, the base can let off its steam beforehand.
The first red-green-yellow distortions on the interpretation of the coalition agreement
show that the government work afterwards does not just promise sunshine - not just because of Corona
.
The designated FDP Transport Minister Volker Wissing announced that he wanted to protect diesel drivers and, as expected, outraged the Greens.
Wissing will not be the last time to gasp at the coalition partner.
The fact that the FDP was able to secure the Ministry of Transport shook many Greens.
In fact, it is difficult to imagine that Germany will experience the mobility transition with a motorist lawyer.
Now the disappointed should feel confirmed before the Chancellor and Cabinet are even sworn in.
Incidentally, with the Greens, not only one party congress has to approve the contract, the online ballot will run until December 6th.
It is unlikely that the majority of the 125,000 members will reject the coalition.
But after the quarrel about the occupation of the ministerial posts, Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck have to be careful that their party's anticipation for future governance does not deteriorate any further.
Balance of power in the future government: there can only be one
Berlin coalition with breaking point
Franziska Giffey
frankly
admits that the negotiations were not easy
.
"I'm relieved," with this sentence the SPD politician announced on Sunday that her party
had agreed
with the Greens and the Left on
five more years of red-green-red government in Berlin
.
On Monday lunchtime the alliance wants to present the coalition agreement, shortly before Christmas Giffey could be elected mayoress.
It is no secret that the former Federal Minister for Family Affairs could very well have imagined a copy of the federal traffic light in Berlin.
That could not be done with the left-wing Greens in the capital, but many of the Social Democrats also pushed for a continuation of the left-wing alliance.
I don't want to bore you with Berlin city politics now.
Perhaps just this much:
the difficult issue of expropriations
- the SPD is against it, the left is in favor - is traditionally pushed back to a commission.
According to the referendum, in which a clear majority voted in favor of the possible nationalization of apartments by large corporations, the future government should find out what is and what is not.
And even if the experts are supposed to present their first recommendations within a year, it can be guessed that Giffey is relying on delay.
Let's see how long the left, which is getting a lot of pressure from its base, can put up with that.
For the coalition, the compromise means a
possible breaking point
.
For the public
image
, it is likely to be more decisive whether the future mayor and her new senate will succeed in shedding the
image of the
failed state
.
The frequent breakdown airport BER is now open, but it is better to plan an extra day of vacation for the waiting time in the terminal during holiday rush hours.
The chaos on election day is already legend and is still awaiting a final, legal assessment.
Even the Federal Returning Officer and Berlin's Senator for the Interior have appealed - by-elections in individual constituencies of the city cannot be ruled out.
After all, they wouldn't change anything about the victory of Giffey and her SPD.
Election fiasco, administrative mischief, broken infrastructure: declaration of love to the "failed state" Berlin
In the judgment of the day ...
... it's about former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.
The legal turmoil over the book "Legacy - the Kohl Protocols" has been preoccupying the regional and higher regional courts since 2014, and the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe has already dealt with it.
Today the BGH is deciding whether the widow of the former CDU politician,
Maike Kohl-Richter
, is entitled to the
millions in
compensation awarded to her husband during his lifetime
.
The oral hearing about a month ago indicated that Kohl-Richter shouldn't have too high hopes, but that the BGH does not consider such a claim to be inheritable in principle.
Will the legal battle finally end this Monday?
That is not to be expected.
The latest news from the night
Couple piles up from the quarantine hotel - and is arrested in the plane:
They had to be in quarantine, together with return travelers from South Africa, some of whom tested positive: That didn't suit a couple in the Netherlands - they tried unsuccessfully to leave for Spain
Woman wins the lottery - for the third time:
The probability is likely to be in the per mille range: A 61-year-old in the USA has won the third lottery win of her life
TV review:
Annalena Baerbock and Christian Lindner didn't want to hear about a new lockdown on »Anne Will«.
But they did not offer orientation in the fourth wave either - at some point the FDP man even got snappy
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
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I wish you a good start to the week.
Heartfelt,
Your Philipp Wittrock
