Olaf Scholz will meet with US President Joe Biden on Thursday. Why don’t they just make a phone call? One thing is certain: the Chancellor is coming at a critical time.
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Dear readers,
It’s school holidays in Berlin this week – and everyone is out and about. My bosses are skiing, the Federal President is visiting Mongolia and the Chancellor is looking forward to seeing a good friend on the other side of the Atlantic. But before we get to that, allow me to give a quick greeting to my Rhenish homeland: Alaaf and Helau, you Jecken!
If there are some diaspora Rhinelanders among the civil servants in the Chancellery, they will have to be quick tomorrow. If you want to shorten Olaf Scholz’s tie to Altweiber in good tradition, you only have the morning to do so. Because at twelve o’clock sharp, an Air Force A321 Airbus takes off from the government airport in Schönefeld. Destination: Washington, District of Columbia. On board: the Federal Chancellor.
Beforehand, immediately before departure, Scholz wants to make a short statement for television. So that you, dear readers, can save yourself this part of the “Tagesschau” tomorrow evening, we have summarized all the background information on the Chancellor’s trip here:
Why all this? Scholz and US President Joe Biden speak regularly on the phone, but would like to speak in person again. There should be an opportunity for this on Friday afternoon (local time). There will be nice photos of the two of them from the Oval Office, but there will be no subsequent press conference.
What are Scholz and Biden talking about? The focus should be on three topics: Support for Ukraine. The war in Gaza. And the NATO summit in the summer. Scholz comes at a critical time. A compromise that was supposed to secure billions in new aid for Israel and Ukraine has just failed in the US Congress.
Anything else? On Thursday evening, Scholz will meet senators and congressmen from both parties for dinner, including certainly Trump supporters who are critical of the aid to Ukraine. The next morning, the Chancellor had breakfast with managing directors of US companies. They’re in town for an industry meeting anyway. Scholz brought them a message: “Germany is open for business!”
Well hopefully. After all, the economic indicators in this country don’t look particularly good. Neither do the poll numbers of the Chancellor and his party. Our SPD expert Florian Schillat commented on why Scholz should never be written off too early.
Not everyone among the comrades is nearly as optimistic as his esteemed colleague. In the SPD parliamentary group, they are watching closely how someone who is now being treated as Scholz’s alternative behaves: Boris Pistorius, the reserve chancellor. He was also traveling this week, spending three days in the Balkans and trying not to fall into any of the diplomatic traps that can quickly trigger a moderate crisis in the region. How does the Defense Minister deal with the Chancellor rumors? My colleague Miriam Hollstein accompanied Pistorius.
OUR DUO OF THE WEEK
…are Robert Habeck and Christian Linder. Something happened that I honestly didn’t expect in this life of traffic lights. The Green Vice-Chancellor and the Liberal Vice-Chancellor agree. Yes indeed. Both think that companies in Germany pay too much tax – and that that should change. My colleague Lisa Becke wrote down how this agreement came about in the problem analysis and why it does not result in a common solution proposal.
After all: there is now a green and yellow power selfie on Instagram again.
AND OTHERWISE?
In Paris, drivers of heavy cars in the city center will now pay 18 euros instead of 6 euros for one hour of parking, and 12 instead of 4 in the outskirts. If you want to park your SUV for six hours in the center, you have to expect to pay 225 euros instead of 75 euros. This is the result of a citizen survey last Sunday. Quite apart from the type of vehicle, I think that parking in city centers needs to become more expensive in Germany too. But I could imagine that some of you, dear readers, see it differently. Write to me! (Email address at the end of this newsletter)
There are federal elections in Berlin this weekend. No, not a test run so that the administration doesn’t get out of practice. A real choice. More precisely: a repeat election. Because there were not enough ballot papers in a number of polling stations in 2021, because supplies did not get through the closed city in time due to a marathon, and because in some places voting took place well after 6 p.m., 550,000 Berliners are now allowed to vote again. A bit crazy – and quite dangerous for the mood at the traffic lights. Why? I took a closer look at this for you.
It should also not be lost on the fact that the federal government has had a power plant strategy since this week. Finally. It is intended to ensure that in the climate-neutral Germany of the future the lights do not go out when there is no wind and it is dark at night. Our Pulheim power plant correspondent Rolf-Herbert Peters thinks: This is a good thing – and our last chance.
LOTS OF FAVORITE
Your highlight of the week
…is a text on the federal budget. Yes, no joke. Even after several articles about the household chaos in the traffic light, we were apparently able to get you excited about the topic again. This may be because the text is not about boring numbers, but rather about the strangest ritual in parliament: the code word circus teacher. Here I will explain to you why you should listen carefully before voting on the budget in the Bundestag.
My highlight of the week
…is once again the column of our chief correspondent Nico Fried. This week he is dealing with artificial intelligence (AI). That sounds more boring than it is. Normally I read a lot about AI in the “Handelsblatt” – and understand little to nothing. But I had to laugh at my colleague Fried. He asked himself how AI is changing political communication – and found answers in India. After reading this you will know why the Free Voters just need the right software, then Hubert Aiwanger would also have a chance in Schleswig-Holstein. This AI future can be scary.
Finally, I have to do my duty and apologize on behalf of Jan Rosenkranz, who wrote a newsletter here last week. He wrote that the Liberals had put Strack-Zimmermann on the spot. In the meantime he knows again that it must of course be called THE shield, as not only Romans but also Germans should know. Our clever readers Lothar Hillmann from Buchholz in der Nordheide and Burkhard Brätsch from Recklinghausen kindly reminded their colleagues of this.
We also wanted to know from you which strike you are particularly looking forward to. Reader Günter Jagodzinska from Aachen replied as follows:
“I’m looking forward to the announcement that 1. FC Köln’s next opponents (Eintracht Frankfurt / TSG 1899 Hoffenheim / Werder Bremen / VfB Stuttgart / Bayer Leverkusen / Borussia Mönchengladbach) will go on an absolute goal strike 🙂”
I note: This strike worked out wonderfully in Frankfurt.
Kind regards and stay with us!
Benedict Becker
PS: How did you like the newsletter? Write to me: [email protected]. Or you recommend us.You can subscribe to the newsletter free of charge here.