The situation in the morning - who determines German foreign policy?

Today the focus is on the Foreign Minister's trip to Washington, the meeting of the Union bodies on the question of a candidate for a Federal President and the attitude of the ex-constitutional protection chief to vaccination.

A matter for the boss or a boss?

The still new Foreign Minister

is starting a record-breaking short trip today: The Green Minister visits her American counterpart

- only for a few hours due to the corona. Fly to Washington, into the car, off to the conference room, then back into the car, back to the plane, and fly back home with a second, rested crew.

It's good that Baerbock met Blinken once before, at the G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Liverpool in early December. So at least the two don't have to start from scratch. In Washington, the German Foreign Minister will mainly speak about the

, Russia's troop deployment, Putin's demands on NATO and the German government's position in this game. But what is the position of the new federal government? Everything is still jerking its way.

As a candidate for Chancellor and even after the election, Baerbock had campaigned for "dialogue and hardship" against Russia, and announced in interviews: "I would have

withdrawn political support for

long ago." Her co-party leader Robert Habeck even requested the delivery of defensive weapons Ukraine.

For Chancellor

, on the other hand, the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline is a purely private-sector project. Weapons for Ukraine are currently not an issue for his government, and how much Scholz relies on

and how little harshness is shown by another trip: Tomorrow Scholz's foreign policy advisor Jens Plötner will leave for talks in Moscow with his French counterpart . And as »Bild« reported, Plötner should also

prepare a

. Will the Merkel era continue, in which the Foreign Office was repeatedly overshadowed by the Chancellery and foreign policy was a matter for the bosses?

The new government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit already has an optimal government spokesman phrase ready for questions about the possible summit of Scholz and Putin: "At the moment I have nothing to report on it."

Guardian of the highest office of the state

Today the party presidencies of the CDU and CSU join forces.

Topic of the two-hour meetings: the next

.

You could actually save yourself gender, because it has been clear since yesterday that a candidacy against incumbent

would be practically hopeless.

After a long wait, the Greens have now positioned themselves for Steinmeier's re-election, like the FDP.

And Steinmeier could count on the SPD anyway.

The silence of the Greens had given the

could perhaps be

found after all. In this way, the CDU and CSU could not only have presented themselves as supporters of the women's cause, but also drove a wedge into the traffic light coalition. However, specific names for such a compromise candidate did not appear in the talks, in which, according to SPIEGEL information, even the future CDU leader Friedrich Merz is said to have intervened. Whether Merz is the right negotiator for politically sensitive talks with the Greens should remain open here.

Because the plan has now failed, and today the CDU and CSU want to advise on how to deal with the issue as face-saving as possible.

One thing is certain: The women's political vigor of NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, who was particularly committed to the idea of ​​an opposing candidate for Steinmeier, has faded again: "I have always made it clear that there can be no candidacy without the prospect of a majority," says Wüst now.

"That would only harm the desire for more women in the highest state offices after the departure of Angela Merkel." Because the office of the Federal President "deserves respect".

It honors Wüst that he wants to avert harm to candidates who are not yet known by name, so to speak to protect the women themselves.

Just as he had previously advocated it as a value in itself that the Union should propose the first female Federal President.

But could the unsuccessful candidacy for the highest office in the state damage a woman's reputation or the office in general?

Or perhaps it is only those who should have found this woman and suggest that they fear harm to themselves in the foreseeable defeat?

Gesine Schwan or Dagmar Schipanski could give interesting answers to these questions, both unsuccessful candidates for the office of Federal President, the latter even nominated by the CDU.

If the ladies are Lage readers and want to comment on the topic - you would have the floor here tomorrow!

• Greens support Steinmeier: Disappointed secretive people

Do the Red Brigades rule?

Today, SPIEGEL is 75 years

and one day old - I would like to invite you again to take a look at our program for the anniversary on our website. My favorite section is the gallery of almost 4,000 SPIEGEL covers, commented on by our head of the cover editorial, Johannes Unselt. There you can look up which issue of SPIEGEL

was on the kiosk

»My« cover story revolves around the Italian version of the RAF, which at the time had just kidnapped and murdered the top Italian politician Aldo Moro. "Do the Red Brigades rule?" Was the headline of my colleagues in blood-red font. For our regular Lage reader

, it should be emphasized again at this point to be on the safe side: It's about the SPIEGEL edition 20/1978, not about the current federal government.

Incidentally, Maaßen is currently under (very mild) pressure in the CDU after he posted a

on social media , which he advertised as a “moving appeal” for the “urgent need for a Covid vaccination ban”. Ironically, at the time when the fifth corona wave is piling up, against which a rapid vaccination and boosters primarily protect. Bhakdi is known for scientifically questionable statements about the corona virus and the vaccinations (interview: »They kill our children!«). There is also an

against him because of anti-Semitic abuses

.

Unlike many party friends, the CDU politician Karin Prien does not want to shrug the shoulders of the post from Maaßen, especially since, as the Minister of Education in Schleswig-Holstein, she is intensively concerned with the consequences of the pandemic for schoolchildren.

Today the members of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs are being discussed in a special session about the Omikron variant and the corona situation in schools.

Prien calls for the ex-constitution protection president to be excluded from the CDU.

The chances of this are slim, and since Prien is not a member of the CDU presidium, no one else will probably address the handling of measurements at today's meeting.

He, in turn, has justified his post in an

, about which the colleagues from "The Pioneer" report: As a child, Maassen wrote that he suffered two serious vaccine damage, hence his

.

The criticism of him is an "attack on freedom of expression and intra-party democracy."

According to Wikipedia, Maassen's birthday is on November 24, 1962.

"His" SPIEGEL cover story is about Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte, a close confidante of Franz Josef Strauss, with an interesting career in the Wehrmacht.

It was von der Heydte who reported Rudolf Augstein to the federal prosecutor's office for treason and treasonous forgery.

I wish you a pleasant read.

• 75 years of SPIEGEL: Which issue was on the kiosk when you were born?

Winner of the day ...

... is

.

The "T-Rex of the Bundesliga", as my colleagues Peter Ahrens and Florian Kinast call it in a

text, is 70 years old today.

Not everyone can be 75 years old like us.

Hoeneß is one of those players from professional football who are even known to people like me who are not at all interested in sport.

And for that it would not even have needed the tax affair of the entrepreneur and Bundesliga boss.

Hoeneß gave up the post of president of FC Bayern two years ago, but as my colleagues report, the people at the club headquarters in Munich are still working on the long-time boss: "Some of them long for the old days, after the rustic Hoeneß'schen Haudrauf shirt sleeves, after this unique blend of empathic selflessness and rumbling fury.

Other long-term employees, on the other hand, do not miss the Hoeness era at all, it is said that his management style was too patriarchal and derogatory, and his tone of voice was too rough and often uncontrolled. "

Hoeneß would have shaped his club like no one before and maybe no one after him, write his colleagues.

Is he the Rudolf Augstein of FC Bayern?

• Uli Hoeneß is 70: The T-Rex of the Bundesliga

The latest news from the night

• WHO warns of even more dangerous virus variants from Omikron:

  The Omikron variant spreads rapidly - according to the World Health Organization, this also increases the risk of a new mutant.

  Particularly in focus: Western Europe

• Committee wants testimony from Trump specialist Sean Hannity:

  This week marks the anniversary of the attack on the US Capitol - it is far from being dealt with.

  Now a Fox News star is supposed to testify about the role of Donald Trump.

  Meanwhile, the ex-president canceled a press conference

• Kazakhstan imposes a state of emergency over protests against gas prices:

  the price of liquefied gas had suddenly doubled - this caused anger among the population: protests in Kazakhstan led to riots.

  Now the state of emergency applies

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

• US Omicron Wave: America's Silent Lockdown

• New subsidy for electric cars: cash instead of refueling

• Uli Hoeneß is 70: The T-Rex of the Bundesliga

• Mobile working and »holiday tourism«: »Most employees don't know anything about this gray area«

  
  

I wish you a good start to the day.

Your Melanie Amann