Does the chance card have a chance?
Everyone would like to be a sponsor for this project: Four ministers will appear in front of the media after the cabinet meeting today and present the key points for a law on the immigration of
skilled workers
: Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and Labor Minister Hubertus Heil.
The new immigration rules for skilled workers are a
key project of the “progress coalition”
, whose progress has recently tended to be measured on the Zoff scale, which is open to the top.
The FDP reinforced against the opening of citizenship rights planned by Interior Minister Faeser - although the traffic light had actually recorded the project in detail in the coalition agreement (more on this mini-uprising here).
My SPIEGEL colleague Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt was able to take a look at the 23-page key issues paper for the traffic light.
A
key innovation
is the
“opportunity card”
, says Wolf, which is based on a point system.
It should allow immigrants "with good potential" to come to Germany to look for a job without an employment contract.
The reform is happening out of sheer necessity.
Because, according to the traffic light paper: "Germany urgently needs skilled workers across all sectors." At least 400,000 people, estimates Andrea Nahles, head of the Federal Employment Agency.
However, resistance from the opposition is to be expected.
The Union also wants to bring good foreigners, i.e. the qualified, hard-working ones, into the country.
Swabians with a dark complexion, so to speak.
But: "No immigration without a job," as the CSU man Michael Frieser says.
Anyone could come (or rather nobody should come).
And why does the coalition want to turn the newcomers into Germans so quickly? One asks oneself in the Union.
Why are foreigners so attached to their old passports when German citizenship is the best in the world, surpassed only by Bavarian citizenship?
Let's hope that the high potentials only follow German media after they have moved to Stuttgart or Düsseldorf.
The CDU's warnings that Germany must "also represent its own interests" and that the German passport will be "sold at a bargain" should greatly reduce the chances of the chance card.
Liberale 2022 vs. Liberale 2021: Dual FDP citizenship
Two conferences on uncertainty
Two major political conferences are scheduled for today.
In Munich it is about internal security, in Berlin about external security: the
autumn conference of interior ministers is taking place in the south, and the
Berlin Security Conference
is taking place in the federal capital
.
Our editorial militarist Konstantin von Hammerstein explained to me that the latter is more of an industry get-together: in the audience there is a lot of military and armaments industry, the defense attachés of the embassies, security politicians from the parliamentary groups.
High-ranking NATO officials and ministers have also traveled to the Berlin meeting, so the planned appearance by German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht is not unusual, Konstantin said.
The speech by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, on the other hand, is.
In a positive sense, Scholz would like to signal how important security policy is to him, keyword: a turning point.
Viewed differently, the appearance could be a sign that he doesn't consider Lambrecht to be his government's best mouthpiece on security policy.
Or is it a combination of both?
The interior ministers, in turn, are expected to support their federal colleague Nancy Faeser on the subject of data retention.
They are also concerned with civil protection, for which the federal states would like more money.
And a few orchid topics like the ATM demolition.
Realignment of the Bundeswehr: "A pious wish" - FDP, Greens and Union pick apart Lambrecht's plans
Two trials of activists
Again Munich, again Berlin, this time the same subject:
The "Last Generation" is accused
.
The Munich district court is hearing about the climate stickers that stuck to the roadway at the Munich Stachus and paralyzed traffic.
The criminal case for coercion against an activist who took part in three blockades and, among other things, glued himself to a street in Berlin-Mitte, is being heard before the Berlin court.
The accusation is coercion, and it is not the first against the 24-year-old – he has already received five penalties against which his lawyer has appealed.
The
defender
is not just anyone, but left-wing politician
Gregor Gysi
.
It is still unclear whether he will personally represent his client in court.
The soup and sauce activism of the "Last Generation" strikes me as repulsive, but the street actions command respect from me.
It takes a lot of guts to stick yourself on a street for your ideals, to be shouted at and kicked by angry commuters who otherwise shrug their shoulders at every traffic jam and gridlock in the big cities or at the successful BER airport.
The argument of their critics that the activists would prevent a debate on the important issue of climate protection because everyone was only talking about the form of their protest sounds terribly hypocritical to me.
In truth, most people want to be spared from both the climate catastrophe and the protest.
»Last generation« and the law: What is protest allowed to do?
A strategy against a century problem
The traffic light coalition has a strategy in the works for many things: for national security, for dealing with China, for more raw materials, for research and innovation or for the protection of the moors.
Today, for a change, we're going to present a strategy
against
something, and that's a good thing.
It is about the
national strategy against anti-Semitism
, which Felix Klein, the federal government's anti-Semitism commissioner, is presenting today together with Katharina von Schnurbein, who holds the same office at the European Commission.
The "Berliner Morgenpost" quotes in advance from the paper.
It should contain five central fields of action: from research to education, from funding to the culture of remembrance to combating existing anti-Semitism and dealing with the Jewish present and history in Germany.
"Jews should be sure of the support of the federal government and the population," the paper is quoted as saying.
Hopefully the anti-anti-Semitism strategy can have a good effect.
Responsibility for Holocaust remembrance: »Our remembrance has become rigid in rituals«
You can find news and background information on the war in Ukraine here:
The most recent developments:
“They are planning something in the south”: President Selensykj reports on new Russian advances – and demands a trial.
Meanwhile, Moscow has canceled an important appointment with the United States.
The overview.
Was the Holodomor genocide?
Stalin's policies led to the starvation of millions of Ukrainians.
On Wednesday, the Bundestag wants to condemn this crime as genocide.
Historian Tanja Penter says: The sign is as important as it is problematic.
The middle generation goes into the crisis winter unsettled - and calls for the state:
Among the 30 to 59 year olds there is an alarm mood in view of inflation and the energy crisis.
According to a survey, many feel let down by politicians.
Here is the current quiz of the day
The starting question today: Which ex-spokeswoman for Donald Trump was elected governor of Arkansas in 2022?
Winner of the day...
… is Janina Hell
, co-founder of the communications agency Hell & Karrer in Berlin.
With her business partner Felicitas Karrer, Hell launched the »Frauen100« series of events, where women from politics, the media and business can network.
In the meantime, the events have become must-attend dates for political Berlin.
But today's dinner is not intended to be a pure networking event, but rather to bring together women from the political world in order to find out and exchange information about the protests in Iran.
Janina Hell and Felicitas Karrer are expecting leading politicians from the traffic light coalition, such as Christine Lambrecht and Ricarda Lang from the Green Party, but also opposition politicians such as ex-Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner.
There will be speeches by Iran experts like journalist Natalie Amiri and human rights activists like Düzen Tekkal.
The desire to seek funds to support the brave women of Iran will cross party lines tonight.
The latest news from the night
The 49-euro ticket is to come on April 1:
A start date seems to be in sight for the successor to the popular 9-euro ticket – but there are still arguments about money.
Transport Minister Wissing reacted cautiously.
There is also disagreement on the subject of wearing a mask.
Mitch McConnell criticizes Trump for eating with racists:
So far, the party leadership has been reluctant to criticize Donald Trump's dinner with right-wing extremist Nick Fuentes.
Now Mitch McConnell steps forward with a remarkable statement about the presidency.
Right-wing militia leader convicted of attack on US Capitol:
A jury found the founder of the far-right »Oath Keepers« guilty of his role in the storming of the US Capitol.
He faces up to 20 years in prison for "seditious conspiracy".
The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today
This is how Qatar buys into Germany:
Many Germans are skeptical about the World Cup in Qatar.
The Gulf State is much closer to us than some would think.
What to do with all the men?
When companies have to meet quotas for women, they often resort to the obvious solution: a woman for human resources.
This puts men at a disadvantage and promotes the next monoculture.
How the pig became a machine:
Humanity eats 340 million tons of meat every year.
In »German Meat Work«, the historian Veronika Settele shows what Germany is contributing to this – and why things cannot go on like this.
How to prevent rapid freezing:
Those who are in the cold become less sensitive.
But you don't have to go that far: a space doctor reveals how the temperature perception can be changed - and whether women really are cold more often than men.
I wish you a good start into the day.
Yours, Melanie Amann