1.
Gerhard Schröder's office equipment was removed in the Bundestag today - and the EU Parliament is putting pressure on him to put him on a sanctions list
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Gerhard Schröder
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
As a source of sayings, the politician Gerhard Schröder was an exceptional talent in his profession for many years.
His popularity in the media and with many media professionals was due not only to his ability to deal with people, but also to an admirable talent for good wording.
"No one has the right to be lazy," he said as Chancellor, for example, on the reform of the social systems.
"What's important now is a steady hand policy," when he was in the middle of a turbulent period of power.
And when it came to an important tax question: “You can do it either way.
I'm for so."
Today it was made as clear as possible in Berlin and in the EU Parliament: Schröder's reputation has been used up.
The budget committee of the Bundestag has canceled the former SPD chancellor, who has been criticized for his contacts with Russia, with the previous staff and offices.
Not only among media people in this country and in the German population, the former chancellor no longer has many who like or even admire him.
The EU Parliament also called for sanctions against Schröder today.
A large majority is pushing for punitive measures against the ex-chancellor because of his ongoing work for Russian state companies.
This increases the pressure on the EU Commission.
Ursula von der Leyen and foreign policy chief Josep Borrell could propose including the ex-chancellor on the EU sanctions list.
If the proposal is accepted, Schröder's existing assets in the EU could be frozen.
In Berlin, the office of the former Federal Chancellor is formally "put on hold" following the decision of the Bundestag Budget Committee.
Last year, the costs for staff and travel for employees in the office of the former Federal Chancellor amounted to almost 419,000 euros.
Expenditure on office space and equipment is not taken into account.
The 78-year-old Schröder will retain his pension and personal security.
In the future, the official appointments of former heads of government should generally result from their obligations.
According to the Bundestag, the office of former chancellors should in future be “according to the ongoing obligation from office and not status-related”.
Schröder was Chancellor from 1998 to 2005.
Once, in 2000, I was allowed to visit him in his chancellor's villa in Berlin together with the then SPIEGEL editor-in-chief Stefan Aust and a few creative artists such as the theater man Jürgen Flimm and the musician Marius Müller-Westernhagen.
The artist-people exchanged ideas with the chancellor about their working rules.
When Westernhagen asked how he thought his statements were correct, the politician, who seems so stubborn today, said the remarkable sentence.
»There are also misjudgments.«
Read more here: Former Chancellor Schröder loses some of his special rights
And here is more news and background information on the war in Ukraine:
"Putin assumes that he will lose his life if he is defeated."
The Kremlin boss knows no inhibitions and could also use nuclear weapons, says Harvard political scientist Graham Allison.
How to stop killing in Ukraine?
By making an offer to Putin.
Not over this bridge:
The Ukrainian army is trying by all means to stop the Russian troops in the Donbass.
President Selenskyj scoffs at "miracle weapons" - and Mariupol warns of the risk of epidemics.
The situation in the video.
US Embassy in Kiev resumes operations:
"We are determined to face the challenges ahead": The US ambassadors are again working from the Ukrainian capital - despite the ongoing war.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
2.
Elon Musk is apparently trying to lower the price of a takeover of Twitter with unproven allegations - and could be successful
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Elon Musk: The Tesla boss has proven many times that other rules apply to him, or better yet, no rules apply
Photo: Wu Hong/EPA
The entrepreneur Elon Musk is adored by many people from the business world, but also by many amateur stock market enthusiasts.
Why exactly?
Perhaps because he often seems to act according to the motto "Insolence wins".
Sure, he runs a pretty successful company that makes electric vehicles, and he's a man of great entertaining skills.
There are doubts as to whether he always sincerely pursues his economic interests.
"One can safely rule out that Musk is about the matter," writes my colleague Ines Zöttl, who works in the USA, today with great clarity about the dispute between Musk and the company Twitter.
Musk has made a $44 billion bid for communications company Twitter.
But he now seems determined to publicly discredit the platform.
The proportion of spam and fake accounts is much higher than the less than five percent estimated by the company, he claims – without presenting any evidence.
In his opinion, bots accounted for at least 20 percent;
however, he speculates, it could also be 90 percent.
Musk appears to be pretending he's concerned about advertisers' stakes, which may be being cheated, and suggests that the SEC review the company's disclosures.
Is that fair play?
In the past, Twitter has regularly stated that, on average, less than five percent of activity comes from fake accounts, but that exact quantification is difficult.
"Musk is lying," Ines quotes a stock market expert as saying.
Obviously he wanted to lower the purchase price.
The Tesla boss has often proved that other rules apply to him, or better yet, no rules apply.
It is likely that he will prevail this time too.
Fears of a recession have halted the long soaring tech stocks on the stock market.
While the price of $54.20 per Twitter share offered by Musk seemed reasonable a few weeks ago, it now seems significantly overpriced.
In view of the price development of the Twitter share, there is "zero chance that the takeover price will remain unchanged," predicts another stock market expert in Ines' story.
Read the full story here: Why Elon Musk is now tweeting against Twitter
3.
In France there is a dispute about full-body bathing suits for women - the conflict shows how little liberal our neighbors' understanding of the state is.
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Bathers in burkini
Photo: Hollandse Hoogte / IMAGO
In France, the city council of Grenoble decided a few days ago to allow the Islamic full-body swimsuit in the bathing establishments there.
At the same time, she allows women to bathe with bare breasts if they want to.
The decree of the city politicians in the big city, which is located in the French Alps, outraged many people in France - and this is only because of the so-called burkinis, not because of the topless permit.
France's interior minister is challenging the city council's decision in court.
The minister sees a disregard for French values, the burkini violates the basic principle of laicism in public institutions - meaning that religion in France is strictly a private matter.
Large sections of the political class, including the opposition, particularly the bourgeois and far-right opposition, are also incensed.
"The country's really big issues are being negotiated at the edge of the Grenoble basin," writes my Parisian colleague Leo Klimm in his report.
»The conflict between liberté and laicism;
the relationship to religion in general and to Islam in particular.« It is about the relationship between tradition and modernity and »also the relationship between the sexes, in which the female body once again becomes a battle zone and of course all sides claim feminism for themselves« .
Arguing is said to be about women's freedom, but also about what freedom is actually meant here.
"In any case, this freedom also has limits," says the colleague, "because, as always in France, everything is overshadowed by a less than liberal understanding of the state."
How should the dispute continue?
Marine Le Pen has announced that after the parliamentary elections in mid-June he will introduce a bill to explicitly ban the burkini.
“This ties in with their promise from the presidential election campaign that has just ended to ban symbols in public space that allegedly served the ostentatious display of Islamist ideology,” says Leo.
"Now the courts are dealing with the dispute." In addition to the government, the conservative opposition of the Grenoble city council is also complaining about the latest burkini decision.
Read the whole story here: The stuff of a state affair
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What else is important today
Federal Constitutional Court approves compulsory care vaccination:
The Federal Constitutional Court has confirmed the facility-related compulsory vaccination.
The highest German court rejected a constitutional complaint against corresponding parts of the Infection Protection Act.
Hedge fund Melvin Capital has gambled - and has to give up:
The hedge fund Melvin Capital bet massively against the shares of the game chain GameStop - and probably lost billions.
More than a year later, the founder is now dissolving the fund.
Most ministers drive cars with internal combustion engines:
pure electric cars are still clearly in the minority - this also applies to the federal government's vehicle fleet.
The German environmental aid therefore distributes red cards.
One SPD minister did particularly poorly.
Perpetrator shoots with crossbow, school worker injured:
There was a shot at a school in Bremerhaven.
One person was injured and the alleged perpetrator was arrested.
Suspected rampage at school – police arrest 21-year-olds in Leipzig:
In the social network Snapchat, a Leipziger is said to have announced a possible act of violence at a school.
The operators first informed the US authorities.
On Thursday, the police then stormed the 21-year-old's apartment.
My favorite story today...
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Felix Magath: The most defensive football in the Bundesliga
Photo:
Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
...is about the Magath effect.
In his text, my colleague Martin Rafelt analyzes what the coach Felix Magath actually brought to Hertha BSC: First of all, the twisting of reality – for example, he commented on the late defeat against Stuttgart last Saturday with the claim: “I remember the setback Not at all any more.« Does this kind of auto-suggestion transfer to the players?
When Magath came, Hertha was 16th in the table.
There they are again – and tonight they have to go into relegation against Hamburger SV, Magath's "old love".
Magath, writes Martin, play the most defensive football in the Bundesliga.
But that doesn't have to be wrong.
My favorite line in his analysis is: "If you don't know what to do with the ball, it's a good idea to have very little possession."
Tonight you can follow how Magath's squad is doing - or whether HSV can lay the foundations in the first leg in Berlin to finally return to the Bundesliga.
There are colleagues here at SPIEGEL who have already hoisted the black, white and blue flag virtually in their team background.
Kick-off is at 8.30 p.m. You can watch the game on Sat.1 or on Sky.
Read the full story here: How the Magath Effect became a problem for Hertha
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
“According to this verdict, trust-based working hours are dead”
60 hours a week?
The European Court of Justice ruled that working hours must be meticulously tracked.
Here lawyer Michael Fuhlrott explains how many companies are shirking - and whether "pain and suffering" is permissible.
"A Sars-CoV-2 superantigen could play a key role"
At least 13 liver transplants and a deceased child: The Swedish immunologist Petter Brodin talks here about the possible cause of the liver inflammation that is currently occurring in a dozen countries.
The night of Seville:
Was it really the “greatest moment in club history”, as Eintracht President Fischer enthused?
It doesn't matter: fans of a German club haven't had as much to celebrate in years as 50,000 Frankfurters in Andalusia.
What is less important today: rumbling cinema god
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"I?
A brand?
Please explain.” Quentin Tarantino at his performance in Hamburg.
Photo:
Daniel Nide / THE MIRROR
Quentin Tarantino
, 59-year-old and highly talented film artist, visited the OMR digital fair in Hamburg yesterday.
The director obviously had no desire to curry favor, reports my colleague Oliver Kaever from the trade fair trip.
Tarantino unpacked his bad mood when it came to questions about the future of cinema.
"It's not my job to make television," he said about the success of streaming services like Netflix and their successful products, which are often consumed by millions of people.
He doesn't say they're bad, but: "None of these films mean anything."
Typo of the day
, now corrected: Among other things, the new budget provides for a billion dollars to counter rising living costs, which also affect people in New Zealand.
Cartoon of the Day:
In the Siding
And tonight?
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Film scene from »Elle« with Isabelle Huppert
Photo: Entertainment Pictures / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO
Could you watch the film »Elle« with Isabelle Huppert in the Arte media library.
The film with a lot of black humor about a heroine who, despite a terrible act of violence, does not want to see herself as a victim, is by Paul Verhoeven - and an ideal introduction to the Cannes Film Festival, which will be reported on many channels in the next few days .
My colleague Hannah Pilarczyk wrote yesterday about the opening that this year the balancing act that the film festival is attempting is "even more daring than before".
A lovely evening.
Yours sincerely,
Wolfgang Hoebel
Here you can order the »Situation in the Evening« by e-mail.
