NEWS FROM BERLIN

The recounting period begins now

After Sunday’s chaotic election, the state election commissioner in Berlin has already drawn consequences and offered her resignation. Meanwhile, recounts are scheduled for several constituencies. The reason: very close or very conspicuous results. Election administrations are also on their own initiative checking whether ballot papers need to be recounted. During some deliveries to the polling stations, copies for Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf got mixed up with the ballot papers. On 14 October, the state election committee will have to make a final assessment as to whether repeat elections are necessary. Not every irregularity has an influence on the result. Source: rbb

NEWS FROM GERMANY

AfD fan kills petrol worker for asking him to wear a mask

According to information from the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), the suspected murderer of Idar-Oberstein is 49-year-old Mario N. The perpetrator shot a 20-year-old petrol station employee in Idar-Oberstein, after the latter had repeatedly pointed out to him that masks were compulsory. On a Twitter account that was actively used until 2019, N. identified himself as a fan of the AfD. He also followed several right-wing journalists and media portals, most of which were not right-wing extremist. Police found both the suspected murder weapon and several other weapons in Mario N.’s flat. According to police, he did not legally possess any of these weapons. Source: waltroper zeitung

Germany’s election and the cultural sphere

It might take some time before Germany forms a new government, and its outcome will have strong implications for German´s cultural policy. Themes such as looted art, colonialism, representation abroad, digitalization and the pandemic, are among those to be dealt with, and each party pays more (or less) attention to them. Many parties want to optimize the “Künstlersozialkasse” — the social insurance for cultural and media professionals. Also, there is a good chance of the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) to be upgraded to the status of a federal ministry of culture. Source: dw

Left parliamentary group in the Bundestag leaves personnel questions open

So far, Amira Mohamed Ali and Dietmar Bartsch will carry on leading the Left Party (die Linke) at the Bundestag. The party now has 39 MPs. According to Bartsch, decisions will be made by the constituent session of the new Bundestag, which is expected to be on 26 October. On the agenda of the first parliamentary party meeting was a substantive discussion on the causes of the Left’s outcome in the federal election. It was important to pull together and learn the right lessons, Mohamed Ali said. Source: nd

The difficult path to a new government

The picture of the two Green Party leaders Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck with FDP leader Christian Lindner and the Secretary General of the Liberals, Volker Wissing, was a sensation last Wednesday. Looking for common ground, something not feasible some years ago, they will have to find a way of dealing with themes such as climate protection, and its instruments (e.g, EU emissions trading X laws and regulations). It seems that there will be many rounds, and with not much information immediately available, as in the past – when the coalition with those two parties failed. Source: dw

Green Youth: “There is no reason for Jamaica”.

The Green Youth has given a clear rejection to a coalition of CDU, Greens and FDP. “There is no reason for Jamaica,” said the spokesperson of the independent youth organisation of the Greens, Georg Kurz. The Green Youth represents about 15,000 members and is considered much more left-wing than the party itself. In recent weeks, the Green Youth had run an independent election campaign, campaigning for a coalition with the SPD and the Left. However, the Green Youth is also skeptical about a traffic light coalition with SPD and FDP. Source: nd

compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Ver.di to extend strikes at Charité and Vivantes this week

The collective bargaining conflict at Charité and Vivantes is going into the next round. Even a new offer from the management did not bring the hoped-for movement. Now the strikes are to be extended. Ver.di’s deputy regional director Susanne Feldkötter again appealed to the Berlin Senate to persuade the state-owned hospital operators to compromise on collective bargaining. The Greens and the Left have called on Finance Senator Matthias Kollatz (SPD) to get more involved in the wage dispute at the state-owned hospitals. He rejected the demands, affirming the Vivantes management has made an offer to ver.di, which was rejected by the union. Source: rbb

Ver.di calls for strikes in retail trade on Monday

After the railway, Charité and Vivantes, there is now renewed industrial action in the retail sector in Berlin and Brandenburg. The services union ver.di has again called on workers in the retail sector and individual food warehouses in the region to take part in a day-long warning strike. Ver.di is demanding a wage increase of 4.5 per cent plus 45 euros per month as well as a minimum hourly wage of 12.50 euros – with a duration of the collective agreement of nine months. In addition, the agreement would have to be declared generally binding so that it would apply to all retail workers. Source: rbb

“Against rent madness”, thousands demonstrate in Berlin

Thousands of people demonstrated against high rents in Berlin on last Saturday. They marched from Alexanderplatz to Großer Stern. Various initiatives took part, led by the “Berliner Bündnis gegen Verdrängung und Mietenwahnsinn” (Berlin Alliance against Displacement and Rent Madness), with a common goal: a new housing policy and a rent freeze. The organisers estimated the number of participants at around 20,000. The demonstration aims at a change of course such as a rent freeze, no conversions into property and no terminations of own use, beyond no evictions, expropriations of large real estate corporations, as well as the nationwide rent cap. Source: md

Ali fears for his family in Afghanistan

The Taliban’s renewed seizure of power has Afghans living in Germany, among them many minors, extremely worried about their relatives. That is Ali´s situation. He came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor at the beginning of 2016. But without recognized refugee status, Ali has no right to bring his family here – even though he is under 18. The relatives, in turn, must obtain an entry visa for Germany, but only if they appear in person at a German embassy – in Islamabad or New Delhi as it is no longer possible in Kabul. Ali fears for his family. Time is running out. Source: rbb

Trans person dies of burns at Alexanderplatz

A trans person who set herself on fire at Alexanderplatz on Tuesday died in hospital. The background is unclear and the police are investigating. Based on findings so far, a political motivation can be ruled out. The 40-year-old trans person tried to burn herself without a word and without announcement in front of a department store. An employee extinguished the fire and alerted the Berlin fire brigade. An emergency doctor flew in by helicopter. According to the police, the person did not suffer any life-threatening injuries, but her condition deteriorated quickly. Source: Berliner Zeitung

NEWS FROM GERMANY

AfD rise seems to have diminished in Brandenburg

So far, the AfD’s election results in Brandenburg have pointed steeply upwards. But the recent upsurges could now be over. The end of the AfD’s rise in Brandenburg began in the spring of 2020, when Brandenburg’s state and parliamentary group leader Andreas Kalbitz was kicked out of the party – but allowed to stay as sort of a ghost chairman. This might please the tightly-knit base, but scares off potential new AfD voters. By that time, the party was classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a suspected right-wing extremist case, too. And nothing has changed in that regard to this day. Source: rbb

Putting the brakes on the car lobby

It was a spectacle, but not so much for the benefit of the car lobbyists: the “IAA Mobility” trade fair in Munich was quite condemned by environmentalists. On Saturday, during a demonstration, the police used pepper spray on activists, journalists and paramedics. Union candidate for chancellor Armin Laschet criticized the protests when he spoke at the CSU party conference in Nuremberg, saying the fair was “the greenest IAA”. With this he unexpectedly hit the nail on the head. Climate activists pointed out, considering that just replacing one form of propulsion with another will not be enough. Source: jW

Party finances in the CDU: “Money is the most important thing!”

With 14.5 million euros in additional earnings, the CDU/CSU members of parliament are clearly ahead of all other parliamentary groups. Given this, a question arises: how does the CDU always manage to maintain its image as the people’s party? Voters should no longer be surprised if another one of their deals with special economic interests is exposed. This accumulation over decades clearly points to a structural problem, according to the book “Die Adenauer-CDU”. The book, among other aspects, points out to fundraising magazines such as the “Wirtschaftsbild”. This can be evidence for how the CDU manages to be closely linked to the economy, but not to transparency. Source: fr

compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Berlin buys thousands of apartments

In the next few days, supervisory board meetings have been scheduled for the private sellers Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen as well as for the state-owned buyers Howoge, Degewo and Berlinovo. Here, the responsible bodies must approve the takeover negotiated by the Senate Department of Finance with Vonovia and Deutsche Wohnen. In the course of their merger, the two housing groups had announced that they wanted to hand over 20,000 flats to the state, trying to influence the opinion of the expropriation-friendly electorate in their favour. Among the properties to be bought, there are the Falkenhagener Feld in Spandau, the Thermometersiedlung in Lichterfelde and the Neukölln Highdeck-Siedlung. Source: morgenpost

CDU fears the fair housing referendum

Just a few days before the election and the referendum on the socialisation of large housing stocks, the CDU wants to know what knowledge the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had about the support for the initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen from “left-wing extremists” – namely the post-autonomous alliance Interventionist Left (IL). When asked by CDU MP Stephan Lenz how “we” protect ourselves from that “infiltration”, Berlin’s head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Michael Fischer, replied that it was not the task of the agency to “take care of how they defend themselves against it”. Source: nd

Health workers fighting together

Starting this Thursday, the trade union ver.di is calling for an indefinite strike at the Berlin clinics of Charité and Vivantes (including its subsidiaries). In May, the workers gave the public hospital operators and the Berlin Senate a 100-day ultimatum, about better payment. This was followed by several further warning strikes. In the Vivantes subsidiaries, ver.di demands the full adoption of the collective agreement for the public service (TVöD) for all employees. So far, a considerable number of them are not protected by collective agreements and thus earn significantly less. For the hospital workers themselves, ver.di wants to push through a collective agreement on relief. Source: jW

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Headscarf wearers face systematic discrimination

A study finds clear evidence of everyday discrimination against women wearing headscarves in Germany. Using actresses in train stations, who presented themselves with or without headscarves, the researchers noted that some seemed to be migrants, and others not, this was not an issue “per se.” The women wearing a headscarf, though, were treated with prejudice. The actresses dropped some fruits from their shopping bags. Those with headscarves got significantly less help – about eight percentage points lower. The researchers see this, among other results of the study, as scientific confirmation of everyday discrimination for women wearing headscarves. Source; süddeutsche

SPD demand commitment to Nato from coalition partners

Mathematically, a Red-Green-Red coalition is likely to happen after the Bundestag elections. However, SPD leader Saskia Esken is demanding a clear commitment about NATO from any possible coalition partner, which increases the pressure on the Left Party (Die Linke). And Armin Laschet (CDU), the candidate for chancellor of the CDU/CSU, has also renewed his claim that a Red-Green-Red coalition is not a realistic option. Laschet even claimed that if the Left wants to dissolve Nato this could be among the reasons “why these people should not be allowed to sit in a German government”.Source: spiegel

Expert calls on Tesla to finance the Fangschleuse station expansion

Can the taxpayer in Brandenburg “donate” a railway station to a profit-oriented corporation like Tesla if this corporation or its employees are the almost exclusive users of this new station? “Die Linke” presented an expert opinion about this last Tuesday. According to the expert, Tesla must at least contribute towards financing the extension of the Fangschleuse railway station, which is being built for 50 million euros and exclusively in the interest of the Tesla car factory in Grünheide. The expert also notes that the construction of such a station exclusively at the taxpayers’ expense would be a violation of European competition law. Source: nd

compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Neo-Nazis soon to stand trial

The two main suspects in the right-wing extremist attack series in Berlin-Neukölln are likely to stand trial soon. They have been charged by the public prosecutor’s office with aggravated arson, damage to property and threats. According to the indictment, the two men allegedly committed the arson attacks on the car of a bookseller and the car of a left-wing local politician on 1 February 2018. The accusation is based on several pieces of circumstantial evidence. The victims were quite active against right-wing extremism. Crimes like arson attacks on cars are very difficult to solve because there are often neither witnesses nor traces. Source: taz

SPD prefer concrete to the environment

Berlin’s building code – for two years, the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Greens have been working on an amendment to the regulations. The new building code would present, for instance, greener roofs and facades. On Monday, however, the SPD representative Iris Spranger informed the Greens and the Left the talks were over. This means it is the end of the red-red-green coalition. Not only until election night, but beyond. Because the CDU and FDP seem to be better at the grey concrete. Now the gardens of grey seem to be back in vogue, thanks to Franziska Giffey. Source: taz

Socialisers under attack

The accusations of alleged sexual harassment against an activist of the initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co Enteignen have now become public and the subsequent internal handling of the matter hold considerable explosive potential for the cause. While for some it is clear that in the case of allegations of sexual assault, the victim must first be fully believed, others consider it customary to first demand proof and also to let the alleged perpetrator describe his or her view of things. Two incompatible approaches. In this case, the feminist approach clearly prevailed. Source: nd

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Bundeswehr colonel leaves the AfD

Uwe Junge is leaving the party, citing its radicalisation as the reason. Among those radicals, he means the candidates for the Bundestag elections, Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla. But he himself is anything but moderate, having been side by side for instance with Pegida founder Lutz Bachmann, as well as many neo-Nazis at a demo in Chemnitz in September 2018. In the meantime, the first reactions have come from the AfD: candidate Tino Chrupalla wrote on Twitter: “I thank Mr Junge for his work in building up the party. All the best in your political retirement! Source: taz

GDL announces five-day passenger rail strike

The train drivers’ union GDL has announced new strikes in the wage dispute with Deutsche Bahn. The third strike within a few weeks will also be the longest so far in the current wage dispute. The strikes are to end on Tuesday next week at 02:00 in the morning. GDL leader Claus Weselsky said he was sorry for the rail passengers, but that the “unteachable railway board” was responsible. S-Bahn and regional services will also be likely “massively” affected. It is not yet clear to what extent these areas will also be affected by the third strike. Source: rbb

Mobile data in Germany costs more than the European average

The Federation of German Consumer Organisations has made a comparison of the costs of mobile data across Europe and found out internet is cheaper in not only countries like Estonia, Romania, and Poland, but also in neighbouring countries such as France and Italy. Just to compare, a gigabyte of mobile data cost an average of 3.35 euros in Germany in 2019, while in France it was something like 3.18 euros. In Poland, it cost the average of 0.83 euros. The Federation advocated measures against high costs. Source: iamexpat

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Large majority of Berliners in favour of taking in Afghan local workers

According to the Senate, 192 local Afghan forces and their families had arrived in Berlin by Tuesday. The Senate is preparing for more to come, affirmed Michael Müller (SPD). Berlin is prepared both for the reception and further distribution of people arriving in the capital and for the fact that some of them will remain here at least in the medium term. According to the Senate Administration, Berlin is a distribution centre. In Brandenburg, the first local Afghans already arrived on Friday and were brought to the initial reception centre in Doberlug-Kirchhain (Elbe-Elster). Source: rbb

Admission only for vaccinated and recovered people: will 2G come to Berlin, too?

Hamburg is the first German state to introduce the so-called 2G (“genesen, geimpft”) option model from Saturday on. In Berlin, the 3G (“genesen, getestet, geimpft”) regulation has been in force since last Friday. According to the mayor Michael Müller (SPD), the 2G model for public spaces cannot be implemented once this would represent an exclusion of, among others, families with small children, who cannot yet be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Other politicians such as Ramona Pop, Regine Günther and Dirk Behrendt (Greens) are very sympathetic to the 2G regulation. Source: Berliner Zeitung

Student council seeks non-white applicants for position

A job advertisement by the student representation (RefRat) of Berlin’s Humboldt University (HU) caused a stir on Thursday. The job is about a counselling centre on racist discrimination. “We ask (…) white people to refrain from applying for this counselling centre,” the advertisement reads. The management of the HU is calling on the constituted student body to review the job advertisement. Later, the advertisement could no longer be found in the RefRat section on tenders. “We are in the process of revising the advertisement. We regret the ambiguous wording,” the RefRat stated. Source: rbb

NEWS FROM GERMANY

A moral dilemma

Who to get out of Afghanistan first? Those at risk who are hiding or those who make it to the airport? There is no easy answer to this moral dilemma. It cannot be right that half-empty planes take off just because there are not enough people in the chaos who have a legitimate claim to leave. But it would also be wrong to take in those waiting at the airport, while for those waiting in hiding to be rescued, the time for help is running out. Anyway, the action of taking 823 people in an aircraft showed something else: it showed humanity. Source: taz

Last German soldiers have left Afghanistan

Two weeks after the start of the rescue mission, the Bundeswehr has completed its evacuation flights from Afghanistan. Parallel to the latest exodus of Germans, a suicide attack occurred outside the gates of Kabul airport this Thursday. Due to the attack outside the airport, a German plane intended for emergencies landed in Kabul a little later. The aircraft, which was kept on standby for possible emergencies in the airspace over Kabul, made an unscheduled landing. It also picked up two German soldiers who had remained on the ground during the chaos following the explosion outside the airport. Source: spiegel

Germany “needs 400.000 immigrants a year”

To compensate for its growing worker shortage, Germany will need to attract hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the next years. The idea of inviting skilled migration to Germany is certainly not a new one. To fill more jobs, the Skilled Workers Immigration Act was introduced in March 2020. However, it was just when the first wave of coronavirus hit Germany, with its first national lockdown. The accompanying restrictions on travel only exacerbated the problem. And the number of applications for recognition of foreign professional qualifications – fell by 3 percent in 2020. Source: iamexpat