Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Bavaria and Berlin easie Covid rules for vaccinated people

Bavaria and Berlin have announced they are lifting some Covid restrictions for fully vaccinated people – ahead of the federal government’s schedule. It came after the government held a summit on vaccination and its rights. Meanwhile, people in Berlin with Corona-immunity also no longer have to go into quarantine if they come into contact with a Covid-infected person. From now on they only have to self-isolate if they show symptoms after contact. Other federal states (such as Lower Saxony, Thuringia and Hesse) are introducing similar rules on vaccination rights, too. Source: thelocal

NEWS FROM GERMANY

Soldier claims Hitler salute was inspired by hip hop

At a troop party, a soldier gave the Hitler salute on the dance floor. The soldier denied this and explained it with his affinity to hip-hop. The Federal Administrative Court did not want to accept this. It has decided for the reduction of a soldier’s pay by one-twentieth for a period of twelve months and affirmed the soldier intentionally violated his duty to “stand up for the observance of the free democratic basic order through his entire conduct”. According to a witness, the regular soldier, a midshipman, took up the basic position on the dance floor at a party and clearly showed the Hitler salute at least once. Source: spiegel

Greens insist that die LINKE support NATO

No one has been elected yet, but “die Linke” has already turned down “die Grünen” as far as the conditions for a possible left-wing alliance are concerned: there will be no commitment to Nato, according to party leader Janine Wissler, recalling that the Greens were founded as a peace party. Nato, however, represents a “war alliance”. Robert Habeck, from “die Grünen”, has already said the Left Party would have to prove to a “that it is capable of governing and willing to take responsibility for this country”. This includes foreign policy responsibility and a commitment to Nato. Source: spiegel

Green mayor calls black footballer racist while using N-word

A Facebook comment by the mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer (Grüne), is causing sharp criticism, and the politician could now even face expulsion from his party. On Thursday evening, Palmer wrote on his Facebook page about the ex-national football player Dennis Aogo: “Aogo is a bad racist. Offered women his ns**.” This quote is based on a screenshot that suggests that social media user accused ex-footballer Aogo of harassing a girlfriend many years ago by saying she could have his “big n*** cock”. There is no evidence for Aogo’s alleged statement. Source: welt

Left accuses CSU of “clan criminality” in mask procurement

More than €30 million are said to have flowed to the daughter of former CSU secretary-general Gerold Tandler alone in dubious mask deals. “Die Linke” demands repayment of the sum. Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) also had personal contact with Tandler during negotiations on mask supplies. The Federal Ministry of Health alone bought masks from Emix for 712.5 million euros at unit prices of up to 9.90 euros. Left-wing politician Fabio De Masi demanded that CDU leader Armin Laschet and CSU leader Markus Söder should put pressure on Tandler to donate the commissions in full to the federal budget. Source: spiegel

Compiled by Ana Ferreira

NEWS FROM BERLIN

Terror against left-wing house project in Berlin

A bomb threat was received against the left-wing house project “Jagow15” in Berlin-Spandau on Wednesday night. However, nothing suspicious was found. That house project has been terrorised for several weeks, the residents suspect a right-wing extremist background. On the night of 10 April, bulky waste was set on fire in the passageway. On 18 April two vehicles were set on fire in the courtyard and on 21 April there was a bomb threat. Prior to this, Nazi slogans like ‘Arbeit macht Frei’ (Work releases you) were smeared on the facade. Residents were also threatened and physically attacked. Source: nd

NEWS FROM GERMANY

FBI spied on Rudi Dutschke

From 1967 onwards, the FBI spied on student leader Rudi Dutschke to prevent him from moving to the USA. Now the files are partly public. Those files are about 300 pages long and cover six years – from January 1967 to June 1973. Many names are blacked out, with many crucial documents redacted. In deleting the names, the FBI took great care. Even in a Spiegel article translated into English from May 1968, the names were made unrecognisable. “Red Rudi” was considered a danger, and not granted to a visa to travel to the USA until his death in 1979. Source: taz

Writer of NSU 2.0 letters arrested, but questions remain

There are two pieces of good news about “NSU 2.0”. Firstly, the writer of the threatening letters has presumably been identified and arrested. It is a 53-year-old right-wing extremist unemployed man from Berlin. And, more importantly, the man seems not to be part of a right-wing extremist network in the police – although he was able to use information from police computers on several occasions. Still, there is no reason to sound the all-clear. How can it be that a right-wing extremist obtained sensitive personal data? Even if the police officers who provided the information were not accomplices, this still can be understood as threatening. Source: taz

Cabinet approves relaxations for vaccinated people

The Federal Cabinet has approved the planned relaxation of the Corona rules for people who have been vaccinated or are in convalescence. The Bundestag and Bundesrat still must agree. According to the proposal, vaccinated and recovered persons should no longer need a negative test when they want to go shopping or to the hairdresser, for example. However, the obligation to wear a mask in certain places and the distance requirement in public spaces will continue to apply. Several federal states have already implemented parts of this new regulation and put vaccinated people on an equal footing with those who have tested negative. Source: dw

Far-right crimes hit record levels in a “brutalized” Germany

Almost 24,000 far-right crimes last year were recorded in 2020 in Germany. It is the highest level since records began. Germany’s interior minister said this points to a “brutalisation” of society in the country and poses the biggest threat to the country’s stability. Authorities have also raised concerns about the role the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party allegedly played in stoking a climate of resentment toward immigrants and the government. The party, which came third in Germany’s 2017 election, has moved steadily to the right in recent years, drawing increasing scrutiny from the country’s domestic intelligence agency. Source: guardian

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