Stubborn: Boris Johnson's right to stay
Comparisons between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former US President Donald Trump have abounded in recent history.
Now another common characteristic of the two becomes apparent: the inability to recognize one's own loss of power.
After his defeat in the US election at the end of 2020, Trump persisted in the fairy tale of electoral fraud until even loyal companions urged him to finally recognize the result.
Several ministers also persuaded Boris Johnson to resign last night, including well-wishers such as Home Secretary Priti Patel.
In vain.
Johnson declined the request, using a well-received argument to justify his stay: "When times are tough, when there's a war in the middle of Europe, that's exactly the time for a government to get on with its job and not just run away," said the Prime Minister.
The narrative of the captain who doesn't leave his damaged ship because it can no longer sail without him has only one catch:
Even if Johnson stays in office, his power apparatus is quasi-dysfunctional.
More than 40 employees and ministers have left the government in protest because the series of scandals surrounding the Prime Minister has not ended: most recently it was the Minister for Wales.
Now urgent legislative projects cannot be implemented because there are no key protagonists.
The country is threatened with standstill.
Because the Prime Minister is stubborn, he must expect another vote of no confidence.
Johnson survived the last with 211 votes to 148.
According to the statutes, a new one can only be made after 12 months, but this rule can also be changed.
A corresponding application has already been submitted.
How this will continue can probably already be seen today.
A prime minister who doesn't want to leave: "Bye, Boris!"
Undignified: Mud fight for Ferda Ataman
Today, the Bundestag will decide whether the political scientist Ferda Ataman will become the federal government's new anti-discrimination commissioner.
The election stands at the provisional end of a mudslinging whose indignity is second to none.
Of course: As chairwoman of the association "Neue Deutsche Medienmacher:innen" and member of other interest groups, as a publicist and columnist (for a long time also for SPIEGEL), Ataman demanded, criticized, provoked and polemicized without inhibitions.
Conversely, this means that she
has to accept criticism to the same extent and with the same sharpness
, that it can be sharpened and sharpened when it is written about.
That's part of the plurality of opinions that we also cultivate in SPIEGEL on this issue:
One guest article was therefore extremely critical of Ferda Ataman, while another defended her and her political competence.
Of course, with a government position like this, there has to be a discussion about whether the proposed person is suitable.
Whether it can be integrative, which would be a helpful quality for this task.
I was only surprised at the superficiality of many allegations against Ataman.
It was reported with plenty of indignation that she had referred to either whites or Germans as "potatoes."
If you read the text by her cited as evidence, a SPIEGEL column from 2020, it is about the labeling of groups of people in general - and also about the ironic question of why Germans like to find attributions for migrant groups, for example, but disagree with the Self-designation as a "potato" is so difficult.
It's a clever, teasing and sometimes funny text.
How this could become a state affair is a mystery to me.
It has been claimed several times that Ataman is hiding anti-Semitism (especially among migrants), honor killings and clan crime.
But you can find texts from her that prove the opposite.
I know Ferda Ataman personally, I valued her as a journalist colleague, even if I didn't always agree with her
.
It is absurd to assume that you are not aware of the problems in these fields.
False claims were made in other publications, such as that Ataman did not want to sit next to Kurds at an event in the Chancellery.
If her colleagues had asked her how journalistic due diligence requires it, they would have found out what Ataman said when the allegation had long been in the world:
"Complete nonsense."
At this point at the latest, the debate had fallen below any ethical boundary.
It would be desirable if the MPs could ignore the mudslinging of the past few weeks in their vote today in order to concentrate on the only crucial question: Is Ferda Ataman qualified to become the federal government's anti-discrimination commissioner?
Here is the guest post per Ataman;
here the guest contribution against Ataman
Night work: Problem-laden Bundestag
In its last week of meetings before the summer break, the
Bundestag is going through a mammoth program
.
Excerpt: Chaos at airports, lessons learned from the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley, protective measures against Corona, Ceta agreement with Canada, anti-Semitism at the Documenta, committee of inquiry on Afghanistan, acceleration of the procurement of the Bundeswehr.
In other words,
the country's biggest problems squeezed into one day of sittings.
One of the focal points: The future of energy, an issue that the war in Ukraine and the dwindling gas supply from Russia have brought to the fore.
In the future, an energy security law is to regulate that energy companies can be supported and, if necessary, also be brought into state ownership.
One of the companies struggling to survive is Uniper, which sells large quantities of gas to more than a hundred municipal utilities and industrial companies in Germany.
Until recently, the group had supply contracts in the amount of around 200 terawatt hours with Russia alone - which are now a thing of the past.
The federal government wants to use the regulation to avert the impending catastrophe on the gas market.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck fears that in the event of Uniper going bankrupt, what he calls the "Lehman Brothers effect" would threaten: a cascade of bankruptcies, similar to what was at stake with banks during the financial crisis.
Another project aims to accelerate the expansion of wind power and solar energy, and another law regulates the protection of birds from wind turbines.
In the provisional agenda, some of the many items have already been postponed until after midnight.
Possibly the dawn is already dawning.
Habeck and the Lex Uniper: Federal government creates protective shield for energy companies
You can find more news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:
Habeck fears an economic slump due to energy shortages:
Robert Habeck warns that the sharp rise in energy prices could lead to a recession in Germany – even a credit crunch is possible.
At the same time, the Economics Minister sees scope for further sanctions.
Norway releases Russian cargo for Spitsbergen:
Russia has been mining coal on Spitsbergen for decades.
In mid-June, Norway stopped a delivery for miners at the border.
Now the goods are coming to the Arctic after all.
Nuclear power plants could replace a maximum of one percent of the natural gas:
Because of the gas crisis, the Union wants to have a vote on extending the service life of German nuclear power plants.
The piles are not good as a gas power plant replacement.
And there are also dependencies on Russia when it comes to nuclear energy.
Here is the current quiz of the day
The starting question today: Germany's public debt reached a peak at the end of 2021.
How much are they?
loser of the day...
... are the
long-term unemployed whose benefits Finance Minister Christian Lindner wants to cut drastically
.
My colleagues David Böcking, Florian Diekmann, Marc Röhlig and Christian Teevs found out about the plan, which was apparently supposed to be implemented without a hitch.
Accordingly, Lindner wants to significantly reduce the "benefits for integration into work" in the basic security for job seekers.
In the medium term, the funds for multi-year funding are to be largely reduced.
As a result, the so-called social labor market, which keeps publicly funded jobs open for the hard cases among the long-term unemployed, is on the brink of collapse.
Above all, it would be a defeat for the SPD – and one of its core issues.
The latest news from the night
Report lists failures of the police in Uvalde:
19 children and two teachers died in the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
The police officers on duty were massively criticized - this should increase after the publication of a new investigation.
Woman killed in knife attack in Sweden:
In Visby, Sweden on the Baltic Sea island of Gotland, an approximately 60-year-old woman was stabbed on the street.
The police arrested a suspect.
Brutal crash with fan - Austrian Gogl has to give up on the Tour de France:
A careless spectator caused a serious accident on the fifth stage of the Tour de France.
Austria's Michael Gogl suffered a broken pelvis and collarbone and needs surgery.
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
What inflation is doing to Germans:
Olaf Scholz knows what butter costs.
But persistent inflation is confusing many people's price perception.
Experts are researching how consumers are reacting - and are warning of the political consequences.
Risky old-age provision with vegan stocks:
The excitement about plant-based milk and vegan meat substitutes turned out to be hype on the stock exchange.
Anyone who still wants to invest in the trend should distrust dogmatic vegans.
'Then I was ignored.
That was his favorite punishment”:
First he ensnared her, then he punished her for weeks with disregard: Anna-Lea G. had a relationship with a narcissist.
Until she finally decided: enough is enough.
How did she do it?
You can take your bike with you on the train – that’s how it works with your bike:
With the bike into the compartment – during the holiday season this is often an annoying, sometimes impossible plan.
Does it have to be like this?
A guide to more space and harmony on summer train journeys.
I wish you a largely stress-free day!
Yours, Martin Knobbe
