1. Does the Union gamble on a one-two?
"Where can I sign against the foreigners?" Such questions were heard from the CDU election campaigners when Roland Koch launched his campaign against dual citizenship;
That was in 1999. Now, almost a quarter of a century later, the Union is again faced with the question of how to position itself.
As in the past, a Social Democrat sits in the Chancellery, who wants to facilitate naturalization with his coalition (how exactly is here ).
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Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz: "A democracy lives from the opportunity to have a say"
Photo: John Macdougall / dpa
And the Union?
Seems to be switching back to populism, it also worked with citizen money.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz warns against immigration into the social systems.
The German passport should not be invalidated, says the CDU general secretary.
The group's spokesman for internal affairs made sentences like: "Instead of controlling migration, the traffic light is handing out more and more residence rights to rejected asylum seekers."
But the Union may have gambled this time: "It is questionable whether the kind of populism that Koch cultivated will help today to gain a sharper profile, greater popularity and eventually more votes," says my colleague Martin Knobbe from our capital office.
“CDU and CSU still remember all too bitterly the years-long dispute between then Chancellor Merkel and then Interior Minister Seehofer about an appropriate asylum and refugee policy.” It reached a temporary high point in 2018, when the group community was at stake.
"By then it became clear that a large, more Christian-oriented part of the CDU had its difficulties with an all too hard course against asylum, immigration and naturalization."
The Chancellor today defended the plan to ease dual national guarantees.
He never understood, said Olaf Scholz, why there was such a vehement insistence that the old citizenship had to be given up: "Belonging and identity are not a zero-sum game." The Union will now have to calculate.
Read more here: Scholz promotes simpler naturalizations
2. Checkpoint of no return
The Berlin »Tagesspiegel« reinvents itself and wants to attack the competition from the SZ and FAZ - with a completely redesigned printed newspaper.
The traditional paper was shrunk into tabloid format, but got more pages.
"Instead of economic and political sections, which can easily be separated at the breakfast table, the new format consists of only two bracketed sections of 40 pages each: one national, one local, both very handy," reports my colleague Anton Rainer, who has a sample issue in advance (more here).
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Editor-in-Chief Maroldt, Tretbar: »Back to the roots«
Photo: Jens Gyarmaty / DER SPIEGEL
The first day of production went extremely well, says co-editor-in-chief Lorenz Maroldt shortly before going to press, even if the following always applies in the daily newspaper business: »You are never 100 percent satisfied.« Today, however, they have come very close to being satisfied.
In the evening they want to put the first new edition in the hands of the publisher Dieter von Holtzbrinck.
The Governing Mayor Franziska Giffey, who otherwise has little to celebrate, has also announced her arrival.
The celebratory mood should be granted to the colleagues from the "Tagesspiegel", also for very personal reasons: It's the newspaper of my childhood, it's still on my mother's breakfast table every morning.
During an internship in the business section, I was able to surreptitiously earn a few euros per line by filling in the “parquet whispers” section.
And in our industry, you have to be happy about every attempt to build a journalistic infernal machine, as Constantin Seibt once called it.
Also about a remodel.
Read the whole story here: How the "Tagesspiegel" wants to revolutionize the printed newspaper
3. World Cup galore
Let's face it, tonight's draw (3-3 Cameroon v Serbia) will command less conversation at the dinner tables and pub counters than yesterday, which saw around 17 million TV viewers tune in (you know which one I mean).
For the Germans, the 1-1 could be a turning point at the World Cup, my colleagues Jan Göbel and Danial Montazeri from Doha report: "sporty, for the atmosphere in the team and with the audience".
There were similar moments of revival in 2018 and 2021.
But this time it's a little different: "Today's team is significantly stronger than the one that was eliminated in 2018." (Read here how good Germany really is. )
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Photo: Kai Pfaffenbach / REUTERS
Let's be honest, yesterday's draw will have been the occasion for mediocre puns a la »Fill me the mug!« at numerous bar counters.
It inspired my colleague Christoph Scheuermann to write his World Cup mini column:
Why do I get scared when Germans are overly happy? Maybe because we are always a bit too loud, the cheers too violent, the faces too tense. When Germans are happy, refrigerators explode. Niclas Füllkrug just doesn't cheer at all. Thank you Abundance Germany should be like you are.
After the 1-1 draw against Spain, Füllkrug looked like a primary school student who missed the bus. Maybe he was cheering inside, no one knows. Was he embarrassed by the goal? After the game he said the wonderfully programmatic sentence: "We don't have to go crazy now." You could put that up all over the World Cup.
The best interviews with footballers happen a few seconds after the final whistle anyway. When the gladiators have a microphone shoved in their face after the fight for their lives. Sweaty boys from your area. Goretzka hung his shoulders, Kimmich had apparently completely forgotten the game he had played. Perhaps his mind was already at home on the sofa. The only one who seemed recovered was Thomas Müller, who chatted happily until he suddenly remembered the defeat against Japan and sighed: "We had imagined it all very differently." I've forgotten what Neuer said.
Füllkrug gave us a few minutes of rest from this absurd World Cup, from corrupt Fifa, from the tournament in the desert. Maybe we'll get through the preliminary round, maybe not. A draw is the little man's victory. The first advent was a mini Christmas. Full night, holy night. We're not freaking out.
Click here for the World Cup live ticker
:
Schweinsteiger criticizes the new generation of national players
News and background to the war in Ukraine:
Does Germany have to help Ukraine with gas, Ms. Sabadus?
Russia is targeting the electricity industry in Kyiv and elsewhere.
Here, analyst Aura Sabadus explains whether the country will need aid soon - and what Gazprom knows about Ukraine's energy sector.
Russian cities put up signposts to shelters:
Vladimir Putin covers Ukraine with rockets.
However, projectiles keep ending up in Russia.
In towns near the border, signs now point the way to the next shelter.
But not only there.
Selenskyj swears by a hard winter, Klitschko defends himself against criticism:
President Selenskyj sees Ukraine facing difficult months - with cold and shelling.
Kiev's mayor does not want to be criticized.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here:
The News Update
What else is important today
Klingbeil calls on industry to produce armaments faster:
The Bundeswehr is suffering from a lack of equipment and ammunition - despite a special fund of 100 billion euros.
SPD General Secretary Klingbeil blames the industry.
The opposition attacked Defense Minister Lambrecht.
Railway union questions the rapid start of the 49-euro ticket:
Criticism is sparked at the Germany ticket: before it starts, the federal government must make new financial commitments, employee representatives are demanding.
The railway, in turn, sees problems in the event that the ticket is a success.
Meta has to pay a fine of 265 million euros:
Because data from half a billion Facebook users has been leaked, the Irish data protection authority has imposed a fine of millions on the parent company Meta.
He had previously tried to downplay the incident.
My favorite story today: Blank Slate
The fear of the blank sheet of paper - the Chinese government gets to know it: Many demonstrators hold a blank piece of paper in front of their chest or hold it up - as a symbol, as one of my colleague Christoph Giesen said: "If they don't allow us to talk, we shall not speak."
The protests are directed against the strict zero-Covid policy of the leadership in Beijing.
On Sunday people demonstrate in many cities.
"Chinese internet users have counted protests being held at more than 70 universities, in Lanzhou or in Chengdu, but also in Wuhan, where the corona virus first spread," reports Christoph.
Read the full story here: »We Are Citizens, Not Slaves«
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
The dictatorship of the car:
Whether it's 30 km/h, new bike lanes or child-friendly districts: such projects repeatedly fail due to German road traffic law.
This has given priority to the car since the days of the Kaiser – for how much longer?
Investigations against high-ranking bodyguards of the NRW police:
The Wuppertal public prosecutor's office is investigating a police officer on suspicion of child abuse.
According to SPIEGEL information, he worked for a state government personal protection command.
What do doubles do when you have to be ashamed of the originals?
When celebrities fall into disrepute, so do artists who act as their doubles.
Some are afraid of being exploited.
How they try to save their business model.
Which is less important today
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Photo:
Ki Price / REUTERS
Sign and credit:
Bob Dylan,
81, has apologized to his fans for not signing the limited, allegedly autographed, around $600 copies of his book The Philosophy of Modern Song.
Because of impending contract deadlines, it was suggested to him to have the signatures made by a signing machine.
He was assured that something like this was done "all the time" in the art and literary world.
That was a misjudgment.
The winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature promised to "correct" the error together with his publisher "Simon & Schuster".
Typo of the day
, »This is what 4G dead spots are called«
Cartoon of the day:
Xi Jingping's attempt to prevent further protests...
And tonight?
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Emily Blunt in »The English«: Those who live have the last word
Photo: Diego Lopez Calvin/BBC/Amazon/Magenta TV
Could you follow a recommendation from my colleague Christian Buß and start watching the series »The English« with Emily Blunt on the Magenta TV streaming service.
Christian sees it as a violent opera, a settler epic, a post-colonial melodrama: the six-part »about the friendship of an English woman and a Pawnee redefines the western.
Grim, plausible – and beautiful«.
(Here is the whole review.)
Have a nice evening.
Yours sincerely,
Oliver Trenkamp
