Good morning, dear reader,
At the weekend I listened to a speech by AfD leader Alice Weidel in front of her base in Ulm. She wasn’t particularly committed, especially given the fact that Weidel was applying for the top candidacy in her home association. By AfD standards, it’s an average speech that the 45-year-old gives all over the country.
Nevertheless, Weidel really got her listeners carried away at one point: when it came to Corona. “You were lied to!” shouted the AfD leader, poking the air with her index finger. “When we sit in government, this entire Corona policy will be dealt with and people will be held accountable!” The hall cheered, clapped, shouts of “Yes!” from many throats. Just a short part, a sprinkle – and yet the one that was by far the loudest celebrated.
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Why am I writing this? Because a kind of double repression is currently taking place in Berlin. It seems that many politicians would prefer not to be reminded of the drastic Corona period. And they also like to suppress the open flank they leave for destructive forces to capture voices.
Alice Weidel at a performance in Thuringia: Corona is the topic. (Source: IMAGO/Jacob Schröter/imago)
Corona has been part of the standard repertoire of almost every speech for three years, not just for Weidel, but for all AfD politicians – because it works brilliantly, because it makes a string ring in many people. But the other parties react with a double “oops” that is difficult to bear: Oh, was something there?
The traffic light government in Berlin is currently performing this “ups” as a dance that works according to this pattern: two steps forward, three steps back, lunge. The FDP, SPD and the Greens have been asserting for a while that they want to work through the Corona policy in parliament. However, a self-imposed deadline was already missed in September. Only sparse information comes out of meetings, which can be summarized as follows: The three-party coalition is once again unable to agree on exactly how to implement its plan. Study Commission? Citizens’ Council? Maybe both together? People prefer to avoid questions from the press about whether the public can expect any measures at all in this short legislative period.
This choreography is fatally disproportionate to the spirit that the parties conjured up during the Corona period. All citizens should pull together and put their own freedoms and rights aside – for the bigger picture, for the common good. But now it doesn’t matter, now it’s simply selfish: the way we want it – or not at all.
In this way they fuel a bitter suspicion: That the parties don’t want what they claim to want. If you don’t even begin to clarify things, you’ll never have to face your own mistakes.
The federal government is currently widening the deep rift that Corona policy has created through society instead of healing it. The only glimmer of hope that remains is that the alliance will pull itself together in the last few meters: the three parties want to meet again on the topic in the next few days. It may be the last chance for clarification.
A tip for negotiators to get themselves in the right mood before meeting their partners: Maybe listen to your own speeches from 2020 to 2022 again.
Federal President Steinmeier: He will give a speech in Berlin. (Source: IMAGO/Matthias Gränzdörfer/imago)
Mourning and remembrance: One year after the attack on Israel by the terrorist organization Hamas on October 7th, the victims are being remembered at events across the country. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) attends an interreligious service in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin together with Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU). There will also be memorial ceremonies, vigils and demonstrations in other cities such as Hamburg, Munich, Stuttgart, Kiel and Lübeck.
A good life for everyone? In 2015, the UN member states agreed on 17 goals that are intended to enable everyone worldwide to lead a dignified life by 2030 and to secure the natural basis of life. These goals are far from being achieved. Today, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is opening a sustainability conference in Hamburg where 800 representatives from politics, business, science and civil society will discuss how this can be changed.
Warlord celebrates: Vladimir Putin is 72 years old. As in the past, the Russian president is likely to celebrate his birthday with representatives of other authoritarian regimes and thus want to show how little Russia is isolated, at least in parts of the world. The summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which includes Tajikistan, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, starts on Tuesday in Moscow.
Celebration of the GDR’s 40th birthday on October 7, 1989: SED General Secretary Erich Honecker (3rd from left) with Soviet leader Michael Gorbachev at a military parade in East Berlin. (Source: ZB/dpa/ADN)
A dictatorship celebrates its 75th anniversary: The German Democratic Republic, or GDR for short, was founded on October 7, 1949. Previously, the victorious powers of the Second World War had fallen out and the occupation zones had diverged. Today many remember her fondly, some even wish she was back.
Despite all the nostalgic feelings and memories of a supposedly healthier world, the following facts should not be forgotten: The GDR walled up its citizens, but 3.8 million people still fled. Demonstrations were stopped with tanks. The regime deployed more than 600,000 people in the service of state security to spy on its own population. It is estimated that up to 250,000 people were imprisoned for political reasons.
That’s why there are no official celebrations to commemorate the GDR today. Instead, one of the central days of the peaceful revolution is celebrated, when tens of thousands took to the streets against the regime on October 9, 1989. On the 35th anniversary of this great moment, Chancellor Scholz will speak in Leipzig on Wednesday.
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