Is Scholz a good chancellor for war?
The question of where
Olaf Scholz
is has already taken on a ritual status in the everyday vocabulary of Germans.
But she is entitled.
The number of infections rose to record highs, but
the Chancellor remained silent
.
And you don't hear much from him about the
Ukraine war
either, at least not much that is new.
At yesterday's NATO summit, Scholz praised the fact
that the sanctions imposed were having an effect
.
Scenarios for the future, for example in the event that brutality and atrocities increase, that more and more civilians are killed and politicians are under pressure to
act
, play no role.
It would be so important to debate it.
At the same time, surveys show how widespread fear and insecurity are in the country.
In the cover story of the new SPIEGEL we try to explain why Scholz is so reserved, where his weaknesses are and where his strengths lie.
And why there are moments when you might think that not he, but
Robert Habeck
is the chancellor.
The digital SPIEGEL appears digitally today at 1 p.m. and tomorrow at the kiosk.
Future of NATO: Rising from the Brain Dead.
Where does the German love of Russia come from?
Since his attack on Ukraine, the Russian President has lost many friends, including in Germany.
Even
Matthias Platzeck
, former prime minister of Brandenburg and a great friend of Russia,
resigned
as
chairman of the German-Russian Forum
.
He wanted to take responsibility for his misjudgment, he said.
"I should have seen it more clearly."
Even the
AfD , whose representatives were
received by the Russian foreign minister
on visits to Moscow
as if they were equals, officially condemned "Russia's war of aggression, which violates international law."
But for some
members
and
supporters
of the party, this is little more than
lip service
.
Behind the scenes, they spread
false news
in the spirit of Moscow or sat down in Berlin in the bar "Center of the Earth" to discuss with Jürgen Elsässer, the editor-in-chief of the
right-wing extremist "Compact" magazine
.
Alsatian defends Russia and agitates against the Ukrainian president.
"This Selenskyj, his foreign minister and the Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, they are complete scumbags, extremists and arsonists," said Elsässer at the event.
The real arsonist didn't matter much to him.
Before the war in Ukraine, pro-Russia sentiments were widespread in Germany, even more so in the East than in the West.
I've always wondered why that is.
Was there a collective
romanticizing image of Russia
and its people?
Were the Soviet
occupiers
so nice that you wished them back?
Yesterday I sat in a group of highly interesting guests.
One offered a remarkable theory: the fear of a Russian attack ran deep in the blood of many Germans.
As with the
"Stockholm" syndrome
, according to which the hostage eventually forms an alliance with their hostage-taker, the anxious also moved emotionally closer to the ruler.
Can that be the reason why so many are looking to be closer to Russia?
I have my doubts, but this thought is exciting.
Russia friends in the AfD: Putin's useful idiots
Have we forgotten the biggest crisis?
The pandemic has been mentally gripping us for two years, the war for four weeks,
Germany in a permanent crisis
, that is reflected in the mood.
Is there still room for a
third crisis
?
Today, Fridays for Future
are
calling for a
global climate strike
,
under
the
motto
"It 's
not enough!"
global cooperation
.
The question is whether the raw material insecurity in the current war is accelerating or slowing down the energy transition - for example because coal is being used more frequently.
A binding exit from coal in 2030 and from the combustion engine in 2025 are therefore the main demands of the activists.
Events are planned in more than 100 cities
in Germany
.
If you think about how many people have demonstrated for Ukraine's integrity in the past few days, you can sum it up: The Germans are not as lazy to protest as is often claimed.
Climate activists: »Destruction by the fossil system«
Raffle for SPIEGEL Backstage
For years,
Russia
has been strategically spreading
misinformation
and
propaganda
abroad - via social media, the TV channel RT and with the help of hackers and troll armies.
Russian state
hackers have even paralyzed
critical infrastructures abroad .
DER SPIEGEL has repeatedly reported on the Russian approach on the Internet.
But how do our journalists get their information on the subject?
And how do you currently assess the situation: how dangerous is Putin's cyber army really?
At SPIEGEL Backstage
on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at 6 p.m. via zoom
, you can ask the editors Patrick Beuth (Netzwelt department) and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt (team leader of internal security in the capital city office) all your questions.
The event SPIEGEL Backstage is actually exclusively for subscribers, but we are giving away ten free access for readers of Morgenlage who do not have a subscription.
Just send an email to info@events.spiegel.de, subject: SPIEGEL Backstage Raffle.
Closing date is Monday at 12 noon.
I wish you success!
information and registration
Case of the day...
... in the material battle of this war, in the world of Stingers and Strelas, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that Putin also wages war in other ways.
A
court case in London
is a reminder of this today.
It's about Dawn Sturgess, a
casualty in that war
.
She died in 2018 after coming into contact with a perfume bottle in a park in Salisbury, southern England, that contained residues of the neurotoxin Novichok.
A
poison attack
on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter had previously been carried out by agents of the Russian military intelligence service GRU.
They had then apparently disposed of the bottle in the park.
Skripal, Navalny, Sturgess - they too are victims of Putin's war.
The latest news from the night
The United States impose sanctions on North Korea's missile test - also against Russia:
Pyongyang had recently tested another missile - the reactions abroad were clear.
The US is now sanctioning Russian companies, among others
Former Chancellor and gas lobbyist Gerhard Schröder says
: Russia and the West made many mistakes - that led to Putin's attack on Ukraine.
The problems went back to the fall of the wall
EU agrees on tough rules for tech companies:
The new EU law on digital markets is getting to the bottom of Google, Facebook and Co.
Those who do not comply face severe penalties
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
Consequences of the Ukraine war: This is what the new world order of the economy looks like
Studies on fears and worries in the pandemic: How Corona has changed Germans
War and industrial peace: How openly am I allowed to express my political opinions at work?
Corona policy disaster: Oops, we forgot the children – AGAIN
Travel through time – Der SPIEGEL 50 years ago: the uprising of the stewardesses
I wish you a good start into the day.
Yours, Martin Knobbe