1. Get off the diplomatic floor
In Iran, the German-Iranian Djamshid Sharmahd was sentenced to death in a show trial yesterday.
A revolutionary court in Tehran held the 67-year-old responsible for a terrorist attack, among other things.
In response to the death sentence, the German government today expelled two Iranian diplomats.
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Foreign Minister Baerbock: "Massive violation of the rights of a German citizen."
Photo: Thomas Trutschel / photothek / IMAGO
Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the verdict as "unacceptable".
"The Iranian regime fights its own people in every possible way and disregards human rights," Scholz wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
"We condemn this in the strongest terms and call on the Iranian regime to reverse the verdict."
Anti-government protests have been going on across the country in Iran for months.
The trigger was the death of the Iranian Kurd Jina Mahsa Amini.
She died in police custody on September 16 after being arrested by the Morality Police for breaking the Islamic dress code.
The protests against the Islamic system of rule have plunged the political leadership into one of the worst crises in decades.
In view of the death sentence, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had the charge d'affaires of the Iranian embassy summoned.
Such an appointment is considered a sharp diplomatic device.
He was informed "that we do not accept the massive violation of the rights of a German national." Two members of the Iranian embassy have been declared undesirable and have been asked to leave Germany within a short period of time.
The Iranian court accused Sharmahd of cooperation with foreign intelligence services.
The allegations cannot be verified.
In Iran, capital punishment is usually carried out by hanging.
For the chairman of the foreign affairs committee, Jürgen Trittin, Sharmahd's conviction is a clear case of arbitrary justice.
According to Trittin on Deutschlandfunk, it is Tehran's response to the EU's fifth package of sanctions, in which Germany played a leading role.
Read more here: Death sentence against Jamshid Sharmahd – A German hostage in Tehran
2. Tax money for "right-wing cadres"
It was a much-anticipated verdict.
The Federal Constitutional Court announced today in Karlsruhe that the exclusion of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius-Erasmus-Foundation (DES) from state funding in 2019 violated the AfD's right to equal opportunities.
Unlike other party-affiliated foundations, the DES has not received state subsidies to date.
The AfD has therefore filed an organ dispute with the Federal Constitutional Court.
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Erika Steinbach (AfD), chairwoman of the Desiderius Erasmus Foundation in the Federal Constitutional Court: "It would have to go to the devil."
Photo: Uli Deck / dpa
Now she was largely right.
However, the constitutional court did not award funds directly to the DES, but decreed that the criteria for foundation funding should be regulated by law, please.
The judges declared AfD applications for other budget years inadmissible, and the year 2022 should be decided at a later date.
The DES is already rejoicing.
"The scope is not as wide as some would like, but there are framework conditions that must be observed," said the foundation chair and former CDU politician Erika Steinbach.
"Since all of these things are observed by us, if we don't get funds, it would have to be with the devil."
In the run-up to the constitutional court ruling, my colleague Dietmar Hipp unraveled the case and prophesied that the federal government will probably not be able to avoid putting the rules under which party-affiliated foundations are granted state subsidies on a legal basis.
According to previous practice, party-affiliated foundations only benefited from state funding when the party they were affiliated with had entered the Bundestag for the second time;
In 2013, the AfD narrowly missed entering the Bundestag with 4.9 percent of the votes cast. In 2017 it came into the Bundestag for the first time and in 2021 for the second time.
Nonetheless, to this day it has come up empty-handed.
Because in the budget for 2022, a so-called budget note stipulated for the first time that the so-called global grants, which form the financial basis of the political foundations, are only granted to political foundations "which, according to their statutes and their overall activities, offer the guarantee at all times that they confess to the free democratic basic order in the sense of the Basic Law and stand up for its preservation".
Because this was strongly doubted at DES, it was left out.
No money from federal funds should be used to "promote right-wing cadres," argues the parliamentary director of the FDP parliamentary group, Stephan Thomae.
There is a lot at stake here: In 2021, the grants to all party-related foundations together amounted to 697 million euros - that is three and a half times as much as the parties themselves received from the state in 2021.
So far, the established parties and their foundations have more or less settled this among themselves.
Now they are called upon to pass a law on the foundation modalities.
»That will happen very quickly now«, predicts Dietmar.
"Otherwise the other foundations won't get any more money either."
Read more here: After the AfD lawsuit – the Federal Constitutional Court objects to the funding of party-affiliated foundations
3. Söder's humor has such a barth
The political Ash Wednesday is something like the comedy format of the parties.
It's a struggle to play in the league of Mario Barth, make it up to Anke Engelke or even take on legends like Dieter Hildebrandt.
Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) spoke in Biberach today.
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CSU chairman Markus Söder with beer on political Ash Wednesday: jokes in slow motion
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
There he showed in front of 600 amused listeners a gift that he received from the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU): a washcloth with white and blue diamonds.
Since his washcloth advice on saving water, Kretschmann has had to endure one or the other hatred.
The saying “Washing by the hand, saving energy for the country!” (“Washing by hand saves energy”) was not on Söder's copy, but on that of another patron, but it doesn't make the joke any better either.
More samples:
“There is no gender here.
It doesn't say "Politics correct" here, but "Politics directly".«
(Bavaria's CSU Minister of Transport Christian Bernreiter)
"Hubert, the cows poop by themselves - you'd better do your own shit."
(The Green candidate for the state parliament Johannes Hunger to the address of the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger, Free Voters)
"And now the new Minister of Defense is demanding Pistorius - sometimes one thinks that Pistolius would be more appropriate - now he is demanding even more money for armaments."
(Linke co-boss Janine Wissler)
Green party leader Ricarda Lang and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) also got involved in the competition for the most original play on words.
"We not only need more masters, we also need more masters," Lang called out to her supporters in Dingolfing.
Also in Dingolfing, Lindner called on his traffic light coalition partners SPD and Greens to refrain from further tax increase debates.
He gave the SPD grandees Saskia Esken and Kevin Kühnert as well as Ricarda Lang the tip: “If you are looking for something for Lent that you can do without – my suggestion is: refrain from the daily demand for tax increases until Easter.”
In Passau, Markus Söder was still mourning for the missed chancellor candidacy in front of 4,000 supporters.
The "turning point" proclaimed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz after the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has so far been more of a "slow motion".
For some media, his statement was even worth a push notification.
And anyway: »The traffic light is the worst federal government that Germany has ever had«.
You can guess who Söder would see at the head of a better government.
At lunch I read the Söder-Sottise to my colleague Jens Witte.
His comment: "That's right, since Andi Scheuer was no longer Minister of Transport, Germany has been going downhill steeply."
I would say the only one with Hildebrandt format that day is Jens Witte.
Read more here: Markus Söder on the political Ash Wednesday - news from the exhibition hall messiah
News and background to the war in Ukraine:
Spain announces delivery of six Leopard tanks:
Since 1990, some of the old 2A4 tanks in Spain have not been repaired.
Now they are to be made operational for Ukraine.
Pro-Russian accounts apparently buy Twitter verification:
Elon Musk wants to offer additional reach to users who subscribe to Twitter's paid offer.
According to a study, this is exploited by accounts that spread Kremlin propaganda.
"The worst feeling imaginable":
A team led by Ukrainian doctors Viktor and Yurii treats injured soldiers near the front.
Russian fighters also end up in the field hospital - they are even useful for the Ukrainians.
Here you can see the video.
Find all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine here: The News Update
What else is important today
Health insurance patients should pay up to 2000 euros excess:
The costs for health care are getting out of hand.
Health economist Bernd Raffelhüschen therefore calls for more personal responsibility for patients.
In plain language: more personal contribution.
The United States wants to introduce stricter rules for asylum seekers:
Thousands of migrants try to get to the United States undetected every month to apply for asylum there.
The US government now wants to prevent this with a new law – and demand online asylum applications.
North Korea's state newspaper calls foreign aid "poisoned":
North Korea is isolated internationally and repeatedly struggles with food shortages, recently hundreds of prisoners are said to have starved to death.
A state propaganda organ nevertheless warns against external help.
Twitter temporarily blocks the account of the ZDF magazine "Frontal":
After "Frontal" reported on the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia, the show's Twitter account disappeared.
A journalist's account was also restricted.
My favorite story today...
...is a podcast.
Namely the new one of my colleague Juan Moreno.
It's called "Moreno +1" and it started this Wednesday.
I have to say that I would have listened to this podcast even if it was called "Moreno -1" and Juan hadn't been a guest - I find his voice and moderation so pleasant.
To start with, Juan invited the former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, to talk to him about a year of Russian war of aggression against his country.
Melnyk wouldn't be Melnyk if he hadn't thrown out a few loud sentences on the show.
For example, this: “Berlin decides largely on the end of the war.” Germany was, is and would remain Ukraine’s most important partner in Europe, so it would depend on what the federal government decides or doesn’t decide.
I personally believe that it is not Berlin that decides the majority of the end of the war, but Moscow, but so be it.
You are definitely encouraged to have the conversation.
Interviews with the qualified psychologist and book author Stephanie Stahl, who explains why we need to know the basics of our psyche in order to understand our society, will follow in the coming weeks.
In addition, Sebastian Rakers, head of Blue Seafood, will report on his studies on the serial production of laboratory fish.
Listen to the whole podcast here: »Moreno+1« – Andriy Melnyk, are the Germans wimps?
What we recommend at SPIEGEL+ today
Traffic light on red - pasta ban!
Fasting in intervals, counting calories, avoiding pasta: there are numerous weight loss applications for smartphones.
But do apps really help you lose weight?
An expert's opinion – and four download tips.
For negative surprises is relatively high«:
The rally on the stock market could be deceptive, warns Christian Mueller-Glissmann, investment strategist at the US bank Goldman Sachs. Here he explains which investments he sees better opportunities.
What does color deprivation do to children?
When influencers show their sons and daughters' rooms, the color leaves the video: furniture, clothes, toys - all in pastel colors.
Observation from a world in which the taste of the parents is what counts most.
"The last cigarette never existed":
Hans and Sophie Scholl were executed 80 years ago as part of their resistance to Hitler.
An amateur historian unveils white rose legends - and has rediscovered what is probably the last photo of the siblings.
Which is less important today
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Emma Thompson at the premiere of her film »Good Luck to You, Leo Grande« in Berlin
Photo: Jens Kalaene / dpa
Ramp Fever:
Standing at the front of a stage and speaking to an audience is
actually not uncommon for actress
Emma Thompson .
And in principle she doesn't feel uncomfortable with it either.
Unless it is the Olympus for filmmakers: the gala for the Oscars.
The Briton was awarded an Oscar twice – both times she suffered a lot from the procedure, as she says.
The pressure and the glaring headlights were too much for her.
'It's kind of amazing - and then you think you want to lie down in a dark room.
You think, 'Please don't ask me any more or make me talk about myself.' It's horrible."
Mini concave mirror
Here you can find the whole concave mirror.
cartoon of the day
And tonight?
"When the carnival people on the Rhine yell Alaaf, their arm-waving is suspiciously similar to the Hitler salute." This sentence does not come from a report on the carnival that is ending today, but from a text by my colleague Wolfgang Höbel, which he recently published in his review of the ARD series »Bonn – Old Friends, New Enemies« formulated.
The series is about two opponents of the early Federal Republic of Germany.
Reinhard Gehlen, former Nazi and founder of the Federal Intelligence Service, and Otto John, surviving member of Stauffenberg's resistance group and later head of the emerging Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
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Otto John (Sebastian Blomberg, middle) is looking for old Nazis
Photo: Zuzana Panská / Odeon Fiction / ARD
Both should actually have worked hand in hand, but both acted against each other wherever possible.
John (Sebastian Blomberg) has made it his life's work to hunt down collaborators with the Nazi regime and bring them to justice.
Gehlen, played in the series by the great actor Martin Wuttke, did everything to prevent this and protect his old Nazi buddies.
If you missed the start of the series on January 17 and like opulently designed history series a lá »Babylon Berlin« or »Charité«, you will certainly like »Bonn« as well.
The series is available in the media library.
Wolfgang concludes that the textbook tendencies in this series can be taken as evidence that it is not just about the political and social turbulence of the past, but also about conflicts that are still having an impact today.
For example, an agent played by Max Riemelt once said: »Nobody wants peace.
There is no money to be made from that.«
A lovely evening.
Heartfelt
Yours, Janko Tietz, Head of Department Germany/Panorama
