Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

More than 100,000 signatures for expropriation in Berlin

The initiative Deutsche Wohnen & Co. Enteignen has now collected more than 100,000 signatures. 175,000 are needed by the end of June for a referendum. Originally the figures were to be published next Monday, but Die LINKE Twitter account published a message early, saying that 55,000 additional signatures have been collected. Internally, the party’s action caused massive unrest. Source: tagesspiegel

Satire demo planned again in Grunewald on 1 May

In addition to demonstrations in Berlin’s city centre and in Neukölln and Kreuzberg, there will be another 1 May protest in the villa district of Grunewald. With a bicycle ride, the demonstrators will travel from Wedding, Lichtenberg and Neukölln westwards to Grunewald at noon and protest there in the afternoon (3 p.m.). Last year, only a small motorcade was allowed because of the Corona pandemic. This year, the MyGruni initiative called on participants to keep their distance, wear masks and take rapid tests. The curfew after 10 p.m., which has been in force since Saturday, does not affect the demonstrations. Source: bz

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Death after detention

Qosay Khalaf was 19 when he was stopped by the police on 5 March. He was taken into custody, the next day he was dead. According to the police, Qosay collapsed in the detention cell in Delmenhorst at around 8 pm. This was seen by video surveillance but not recorded – for reasons of data protection, according to the police. The ambulance service took the 19-year-old to the hospital in Oldenburg. However, witnesses from the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf affirm there was external violence, and that lack of oxygen led to Qosay Khalaf’s death. Source: taz

League of Anti-Fascists now charitable again

For months, the Association of the Persecuted of the Nazi Regime – League of Anti-Fascists (VVN-BdA e. V.) has been struggling to get back on its feet. It was waiting for a decision on the status of its non-profit status. “After a thorough examination”, the Tax Office for Corporations I announced on Wednesday that the non-profit status could be granted again for the year 2019. The decision was met with approval, especially on the left. Several politicians also showed solidarity with the association such as Dietmar Bartsch, chairman of the Die LINKE. Source: nd

“Querdenker” observed nationwide

There have been countless attacks at Corona demonstrations. Now the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is reacting: it has classified the Corona protests as an object of national observation. Since the Corona protests does no fit into any of the categories used previously by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Federal Office has created a new collective observation object: “Delegitimisation of the state that is hostile to democracy and/or endangers security”. The agency still warns that with this kind of protest the “Querdenkers” make, making use of conspiracy myths, antisemitic resentment, and can have a “significant catalytic effect”. Source: taz

Constitutional Court: Climate Protection Act does not go far enough

The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has announced that the German climate protection law is partly unconstitutional. It lacks sufficient requirements for the reduction of emissions from 2031 onwards. The judges have therefore obliged the legislator to regulate the reduction targets better by the end of 2022. “Virtually all freedom is potentially affected by these future emission reduction obligations, because almost all areas of human life are still linked to the emission of greenhouse gases and are thus threatened by drastic restrictions after 2030,” they declare. To safeguard fundamental freedoms, the legislature should have taken precautions “to mitigate these heavy burdens”. Source: dw

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

47 percent of Berliners in favour of expropriation of real estate corporations

The opinion research institute Civey asked 2,502 representatively selected Berliners about their attitude to the expropriation of real estate companies. The result: in total, 47.1 per cent think it is the right thing to do, while around ten per cent of all respondents were undecided. As in previous surveys, the proportion of supporters is highest among Left Party voters. It currently stands at 89.3 per cent. But even 20 per cent of CDU and FDP voters think the expropriators’ cause is worth supporting. A clear majority of supporters of these parties – just like the AfD – reject expropriation. Source: tagesspiegel

Remembering women and migrants

Ulisone Rodrigues, a pastor from Mozambique, offered church services for contract workers from Mozambique in Friedrichshain in 1986. This turned the parish hall into a meeting place where Mozambicans and other contract workers could celebrate and exchange ideas, also about their experiences of racism in the GDR. Stories such those illustrate why Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg sees itself with justification as a trendsetter when it comes to addressing social conditions and making repressed histories visible. However, the “Kiezmuseum“ wants to go even further on inclusiveness, identifying four thematic areas: women’s history, migration history, queer political history and colonialism. Source: taz

NEWS FROM GERMANY

The Corona “emergency brake” is getting closer

In Berlin, the Bundestag passed amendments to the Infection Protection Act, tightening it up. Extremists have called for a storming of the Reichstag, which brings back memories of August 2020. In the parliament, during the debate on the Rules of Procedure, the Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble had to slow down the speakers. The managing director of the AfD parliamentary group called the whole affair a “farce.” The Liberals also complained harshly. Only after more than two and a half hours the results came up: with a sufficient majority (342 votes in favour, 250 against, 64 abstentions), the Bundestag passed the law. Source: dw

Left Party leader Wissler leaves Wiesbaden for Berlin

The former parliamentary group leader of the Left Party in the state parliament, Janine Wissler, is moving out to the Bundestag in Berlin. As the most diligent speaker in the opposition, she has earned the respect of the other parliamentary groups over the years. Wissler named the abolition of tuition fees in Hesse, the commitment against the airport expansion and for the decommissioning of the Biblis nuclear power plant as among her most formative issues. Currently, she and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow, leader of the Left Party in Thuringia, form the new dual leadership of the party. Source: hessenschau

Laschet is the Union candidate for Chancellor

CSU leader Markus Söder has accepted the vote of the CDU federal executive committee. This means that the leader of the Christian Democrats, Armin Laschet, is the Union’s candidate for chancellor. Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Laschet and further statements also came from other politicians. The Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock said she was counting on “a fair election campaign for the leadership of this country.“ FDP leader Christian Lindner said there were many substantive issues on which the Liberals agreed with Laschet, wishing him every success, “as long as it is not at our expense”. Source: dw

When will Corona vaccinations for children and adolescents come?

In the “vaccination hierarchy” of most countries, children and adolescents are not even mentioned. They would probably be vaccinated last. However, the question has not yet arisen because no Corona vaccine has yet been licensed for children and adolescents. And, since last Spring, sudden cases of a multi-organ disease, the Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS), have been increasing worldwide – mostly after an asymptomatic infection.In the meantime, BioNTech says a vaccine for younger children could be available in early 2022. Moderna aims to present initial results by the summer. Source: dw

The majority of Germans wants the rent cap

Thousands of people demonstrated in Berlin ‘s Neukölln and Kreuzberg districts against the ruling on the rent cap. According to the latest survey, almost 61 per cent of Germans can imagine stricter rent regulation in individual regions. The Civey survey also distinguished between property owners and tenants. Not surprisingly, around 69 percent of tenants would like to see stricter rules on the ground. It is interesting, however, that even more than half of the property owners (50.6 percent) would welcome regional rent caps. Most economists are of the opinion that one should not regulate further. Source: welt

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Cycle path instead of motorway

Many people protested last Saturday against the expansion of the A100 motorway. The bicycle convoy went from the Neukölln slip road to the Tempelhofer Damm exit directly at Tempelhofer Feld – around 4,000 participants were estimated, almost all of them wearing FFP2 masks. Specifically, it is about the 16th construction section of the A100, which is currently under construction and supposed to lead the corridor to Treptower Park, as well as the planned 17th construction section up to Storkower Straße in Lichtenberg. The activists presented their visions of a car-free and liveable city in front of Scheuer’s Federal Ministry of Transport. Source: nd

Rent freeze for the whole country

This decision by the Federal Constitutional Court will affect the entire republic. Quite a few people in Berlin fear that the court will overturn the rent cap because Berlin has no legislative competence, since tenancy law is federal law. But it could also be that the judges will only criticise individual aspects of Berlin’s red-red-green attempt to end the rent madness in the capital. It is positive anyway the Federal Constitutional Court is announcing its decision and thus most likely putting an end to the miserable legal saga that has been going on for a year now. Source: nd

Party tram through the Görli provokes resistance

SPD, Left Party and the Greens agree that a focus on public transport is central to climate policy in Berlin. However, a proposal by the Senator Regine Günther (Greens) to expand the tram network is causing trouble. Specifically, it is about the planned routing of the M10 line, which is to be extended at one end to Beusselstraße in Moabit and at the other from Warschauer Straße via Kreuzberg to Hermannplatz in Neukölln. The extension of the tramway from Weißensee to Pankow threatens to damage the green urban idyll, for instance. Because of it, protests by the well-organised allotment gardeners can be expected. Source: nd

NEWS FROM GERMANY

AfD Out of touch with reality

The AfD, with ever more radical political objectives, is trying to retain core voters and recruit new ones. With deliberate vagueness, it is making space in which as many people as possible can find themselves, from bourgeois conservatives to reactionaries. This anything-goes is evident in decisions such as the one in favour of Germany leaving the EU, decided at the party conference in Dresden. The conservatism of the AfD is exclusively backward-looking. With its advertising campaign, the party suggests that the problems of the present can be solved by taking Germany back to earlier decades. Source: zeit

Doctor on trial because of offering abortions

The next gynaecologist is on trial: Detlef Merchel from Nottuln in Münsterland was charged with Paragraph 219a. This prohibits doctors from providing information on their websites about how they perform abortions. The trial against Merchel will take place at the Coesfeld district court at the end of May. “I have been providing information about abortions online for more than 15 years,” says the doctor. Other doctors, the general practitioner Kristina Hänel and the gynaecologist Bettina Gaber were charged under the new version of section 219a and have filed a constitutional complaint. Supporters said there would be solidarity actions for Merchel, as well. Source: taz

Kurdish activist faces several years in prison

A Kurdish HDP activist in Hesse, “Nazdar“, was to be deported to Turkey. In an interview, she speaks about being almost deported to Turkey. The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees rejected her asylum application in 2017, because she belongs to the Turkish opposition party HDP. There is a suspicion the deportation did not happen because “Nazdar“ offered passive resistance and refused to board the plane. In such cases, pilots sometimes refuse to take a passenger who is to be transported against his will. The Frankfurt district court will examine whether the rejection of her asylum application is legal at all. Source: jW

Stuttgart trial opens: right-wing terror group wanted to “abolish democratic system”

The trial of eleven members and one supporter of the alleged terrorist group “Gruppe S.” began on last Tuesday at the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court (OLG). In the indictment, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office accused the defendants of having founded a terrorist organisation in Alfdorf (Rems-Murr district), Minden (North Rhine-Westphalia) and Berlin. The intention was to murder or kill and to bring about civil war-like conditions, with its first concrete targets as mosques in March 2020. However, the group was arrested one month earlier. The men are said to have arranged to meet via internet chats, and they also made use of connections to already existing neo-Nazi groups. Source: swr

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Refugee beaten by police then threatened with deportation

Abdul A. was twelve years old when he saw his father being shot. This is how the 19-year-old, whose name is actually different, tells it. He spoke about his escape story – and about how he was beaten up by Berlin police officers in February. Afterwards, he was dragged before a delegation from Guinea, which was supposed to confirm his origin. Travel substitute papers could be issued, deportation can be initiated. Abdul A. is a Guinean citizen. According to questions from die LINKE, the activities of such delegation members are also sweetened by financial expenses. Source: taz

NEWS FROM GERMANY

“Querdenken” demos drive infections

In May, at the largest “Querdenken” rally in Stuttgart so far, about 10,000 participants gathered. This last Saturday, the turnout does not seem to have been significantly lower. However, there is a significant difference: then, crosses on the ground marked the mandatory minimum distance to those standing next to them. This time, the city’s public order office did not find it necessary to prescribe such crosses. A study from February identified the “Querdenken” demonstrations as a significant infection driver – with bus and train traffic in particular also coming into play as a point of infection. Source: taz

Quarantine will be lifted for vaccinated people

People who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus will soon get back freedoms, according to plans by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU). The background to this is an analysis by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), according to which the testing and quarantine obligation for those who have been fully vaccinated can be lifted quickly. If the third wave of the Corona pandemic is broken and further opening steps based on rapid tests are taken, as in the case of retail, this decision would come into effect. In addition, according to the RKI’s assessment, fully vaccinated people would also no longer have to go into quarantine. Source: dw

Corona vaccinations are slowly getting off the ground

All over Germany, those responsible are now hoping for a faster pace of vaccination. Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) has issued the slogan that by the beginning of May 20 percent of people in Germany should receive their first vaccination. The German General Practitioners’ Association´s head, Ulrich Weigeldt, expects GP practices to get significantly more vaccine doses in the near future. Experts hope that the vaccinations in the practices will above all improve the care of the vaccination candidates: Unlike the staff in the vaccination centres, family doctors know their patients. Source: dw

More human rights violations under Covid

The Corona pandemic has led to a significant increase in human rights violations worldwide with many millions affected, according to Amnesty International. Authorities had “condoned harm or even death” of vulnerable people, such as high-risk patients, migrants, minorities, women and girls. Health workers were also particularly affected. Amnesty strongly criticises the actions of rich countries in the fight against the virus and accuses the international community of not pulling together to fight the pandemic. The report denounces too the discrimination of poorer countries in the distribution of vaccines. The Covax Initiative of the World Health Organisation, which was founded to ensure equitable supply, has been undermined by industrialised countries. Source: nd

Secret Service spies on LINKE activists

About half a year before the local elections in Lower Saxony, the state’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution informed three LINKE members of their surveillance. There was indignation about the spying from various sections of die LINKE. The co-chair of die LINKE, Janine Wissler, also demanded clarification. The domestic secret service, she said, could not be controlled democratically, but could be instrumentalised to intimidate and discredit political opponents. It is worth to remind that this is not the first time that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Lower Saxony has been criticised. Source: nd

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Hard restriction of contacts, nurseries closed and curfew

Because of Covid-19, from Good Friday contact in Berlin has been limited even further. Between 9pm and 5am groups of more than 2 people are banned. Further limitations are expected after Easter. Non-food shopping and visiting hairdressers or museums is only allowed If you have a negative Corona test. Incidences of the virus in Berlin are stagnating – but at a very high level. Employers must offer Corona tests and encourage home office working, but workplaces stay open. Source: Berliner Zeitung

NEWS FROM GERMANY

A message without courage

They wore black T-shirts, each with a white letter, “Humanrights” was the message. The German football players sent a signal for human rights before the first World Cup qualifier for Qatar. It is very rare in professional football for teams to go beyond the staged association campaigns against oppression or discrimination. Nevertheless, there was quick criticism. Thousands of guest workers have died around the construction sites for the 2022 World Cup. You can’t agree with that, and in Norway there has been an increasingly loud boycott movement since this latest news. But Germany has only shown T-shirts. Source: spiegel

Merkel’s options

Tougher corona measures are expected to come. The infection figures rise, and experience shows that things change when the state comes with new restrictions. Vaccination is too slow to reverse the trend in the short term. In the third wave, the force of the factual will work again. But it would be better if something happened sooner this time. There are political ways of doing this, but they are risky. That could be by pushing the minister-presidents to agree to new measures in the next federal-state round; by Angela Merkel involving simultaneously the Bundesrat as well as the Bundestag; or by having a decision in the Bundestag, without the Bundesrat. Source: taz

Clinics in the third wave

Calls for more centralisation are not only growing in the pandemic management of the government – this is happening in the health care system, too, especially in the care of Covid 19. For instance, the AOK considers that hospital treatments other than Covid-19 might have declined during the periods of heavy infection. On the other hand, the medical profession seems to have learned since the shock of the first wave: there is improved drug treatment of patients with anti-inflammatory and now also with blood-thinning drugs. So far, the German health system has not been overburdened, but AOK says there is a strong concern about the third wave. Source: nd

Racist and anti-Semitic stereotypes spread among police officers

Anti-Semitic and racist stereotypes are widespread in Saxony-Anhalt’s police force. These are the findings of a special commission, where it is also stated there are no indications of institutional racism or anti-Semitism in the police. However, the report notes the use of terms such as “Jew” for an “enterprising person”, “Fascist Tuesday” for the targeted control of foreigners as well as other derogatory terms for foreigners and Black people. It therefore recommends greater sensitisation as well as increased teaching of diversity, cultural competence and political education already in training. The police college should create a new professorship for this purpose. Source: mdr

Comeback or April Fool?

The former president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, wants to enter the Bundestag for the CDU in September. Mark Hauptmann, who has since left the party and is under investigation in the Union’s mask affair, was elected in this constituency in the 2017 Bundestag elections. The proposal is currently being discussed among the district associations. Federal Labour Minister Hubertus Heil reacted incredulously to the news of Maaßen’s plans. Addressing CDU Secretary General Paul Ziemiak and party leader Armin Laschet, the SPD politician tweeted: “This is surely a very bad April Fool’s joke – Oder????! Source: nd