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Germany is closing
It can’t go fast enough right now. Saxony come down on Monday, in North Rhine-Westphalia compulsory school attendance ends in Baden-Württemberg Strict exit restrictions apply from today on Schleswig-Holstein and elsewhere a prohibition of alcohol in public, Brandenburg it also announces cuts. “The only possibility to regain control of the situation is a shutdown, which must take place immediately,” an alarmed federal interior minister Horst Seehofer told SPIEGEL. “If we wait until Christmas, we will have to struggle with the high numbers for months.”
Germany will soon be largely closed: shops closed, schools and kindergartens closed, stricter rules for contacts, possibly even night curfews – all this until at least January 10, extension not excluded. The decision on when exactly the republic in the fill lock is going to fall this weekend. Chancellor and Prime Minister are due to report Sunday morning Video Summit on Crisis willing to meet.
It’s a remarkable change of mind: a few days ago politicians were still hesitating and wanted to make it possible for people to throw a party with their loved ones before the reins were tightened. But on Friday, the Robert Koch Institute released new terror figures: 30,000 new infections, 598 deaths per corona in 24 hours. Maximum values. Now, the federal and state governments want to pull the emergency brake before Christmas Eve.
What politics drowns out with all the loud warnings and admonitions: That is the fact that public life lulls deeply during the turn of the year. Admission of a fatal error of judgment. At the end of October he was convinced that the second wave could be broken with a four-week blocking light. This did not result in anything that was already predictable, by the way, when the citizens were promised a relaxation for the festival and the turn of the year.
Now there are agitated countermeasures. Unwanted Side Effect: The prospect of stores closing next week is likely to drive hundreds of thousands of panicky gift hunters to city centers this weekend.
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Winter’s Failure: A team of SPIEGEL editors has rebuilt how politics has played the lead of the first wave in recent weeks and also in the summer. Read the SPIEGEL cover story here.
Black-Green Chancellor Duel
Like my colleague Valerie Höhne and my colleagues Florian Gathmann and Christoph Hickmann Markus Söder and Robert Habeck asked if he was going to one joint interview They were ready, it didn’t take long for both of them to respond: Sure, we can do it.
A little later, the date of the unusual video meeting in pandemic conditions, conducted from five different locations. The Bavarian Prime Minister sat at the State Chancellery in Munich, the head of the Greens, Habeck, at the Kaiserin-Friedrich-Haus in Berlin-Mitte (the party headquarters across the street is under construction), the SPIEGEL editors at head office or editorial office.
The atmosphere did not suffer, on the contrary, it turned out to be a very interesting, lively, mostly friendly conversation between two men with a strong sense of power. In these possible candidates for chancellorThat’s true, a black-green coalition, or if it were up to Habeck: green-black, it wouldn’t fail.
A Alliance of the Union and the Greens “It would be the most interesting political offering right now,” the CSU president enthused. Habeck was less exuberant, but had a lot of praise for his interlocutor.
For the sake of order, there was, of course, some teasing. Habeck compared Söder to a camel, due to his physical condition and perseverance. The prime minister returned the favor: He used to think that the green boss was “more of a teddy”, but now he adapts more and more and constantly shaves. It is a pity that “something was lost”
Today, Habeck can smell a little what black-green, or better-green-black government feels: he’s a guest speaker when he’s Winfried Kretschmann in Reutlingen again to be the main candidate for the state elections in Baden-Württemberg. Kretschmann gets along wonderfully with Söder and recommended, as the CSU boss told SPIEGEL, that he meet Habeck for a beer. Cell phone numbers have already been exchanged.
The latest Brexit deadline …
On Sunday there should finally be a decision. Really this time. Right now. At least that’s how the heads of the EU Commission have it Ursula von der Leyen and the prime minister of Great Britain Boris johnson he announced this week after his unfinished dinner. The UK left the European Union a year ago, but it will end on December 31 Transition phase, then the British will also leave the domestic market and the Customs union outside. With or without Commercial pact? That should be clear on Sunday.
Can’t you hear it anymore? You are not alone with this feeling. The same points have been debated for months: fishing, fair competition, and the question of how agreements are legally enforced in the event of a dispute.
The final jet is strong again pessimism spread. Boris Johnson says it is “very, very likely” that the negotiations will fail. Von der Leyen didn’t have much hope either. Without an agreement, there is the risk of tariffs, border congestion, trade barriers, and the loss of thousands of jobs.
The German chancellor does not want to give up just yet. An agreement is still possible, says Heiko Maas. “In the end, it wouldn’t fail because it took a few more days.”
I think so immediately. Sunday’s decision could be a final deadline. A very last one. The year is still long.
Loser of the day …
… is the mulled wine. The hot winter drink has never tasted good. But somehow it was part of the Advent season. There are no Christmas markets this year, but since restaurants and cafes can still offer take-out food and drinks, mulled wine still found its market.
For. Since the chancellor has publicly identified the mulled wine drinker as the driver of the pandemic, as someone who puts human life at risk for his already dubious drinking pleasure, the rottenness that wine contains has been affected by a stigma. Gradually, the out-of-home sale of mulled wine is now banned due to the threat of package formation. It is one of the less serious hardships of this time.
