NEWS FROM BERLIN
Right-wing extremist demo wants to march through Rigaer Straße
An announced right-wing extremist demonstration through Berlin-Friedrichshain has provoked left-wing counterdemonstrations. The right-wing extremist event for December 14, registered with the police for some time, is to start at Ostkreuz, passing through Rigaer Straße. According to the police, 50 to 100 participants are registered. The planned counterdemonstrations are called “Against fascism, queer-hate and misogyny – for a colourful Berlin instead of a brown one” and “Put child Nazis to bed.” The demonstrations’ routes could still be changed due to the potentially dangerous situation, as announced by Senator of the Interior Iris Spranger (SPD). Source: rbb
Thousands protest against cuts to Berlin’s cultural scene
Berlin government has to make substantial savings – and will not spare the cultural sector. This includes theatres, opera houses, libraries and clubs. Their representatives protested in Berlin on Wednesday. According to the organisers, around 3,000 people took part in the demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate. A police spokeswoman gave the figure of 1,000 demonstrators when asked by rbb. Actress Katharina Thalbach and her colleagues Lars Eidinger and Alexander Scheer also took part in the protest. The Berlin Senate wants to cut 10% from all departments, and this will also affect the cultural budget. Source: tagesschau
NEWS FROM GERMANY
Germany to hold snap federal election on February 23
Following the traffic-light (“Ampel”) coalition’s collapse, Germany’s Federal Returning Officer has announced that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will face a no-confidence vote on December 16, 2024. The process will run then as following: in case Scholz loses the vote, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) will dissolve parliament 11 days afterwards, on December 27. Once parliament has been dissolved an election must be held within 60 days. In that situation, February 23 has been selected as the date Germans might return to the polls. Source: iamexpat
Germany’s health-care sector: skilled labor shortage
Around 47,400 positions in Germany’s health-care sector were unable to be filled by suitably qualified applicants in 2023 and 2024. This problem has been exacerbated by the increased health demands of an aging population, with Germany’s public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), predicting that the percentage of people aged 65 or older will grow from the current 21% to 29% by 2030. “An aging population leads to an increasing demand for health-care services. This increases the burden on existing skilled labor,” according to the authors of the study, carried out by the Competence Centre for Securing Skilled Labour at the German Economic Institute (IW). Source: dw
More than 3 million pensioners at risk of poverty in Germany
Sahra Wagenknecht, the leader of the new left-wing BSW party, lamented a “dramatic increase in old-age poverty” in an interview with the German dpa news agency published on Saturday. The BSW had issued a formal request for information to the European Union’s statistical agency Eurostat, which found that around 3.2 million people aged 65 or over in Germany were at risk of poverty. The figure had risen slightly in 2023, to 3.245 million, from 3.157 million the previous year. In 2013, only 2.4 million were at risk of poverty. Source: dw
Already 31,000 postal complaints
The Federal Network Agency has once again received significantly more complaints about the postal service. As the Bonn-based authority explained in response to an enquiry from dpa, it received around 31,700 complaints in the first nine months of the current year, 25% more than in the same period in 2023. Even if the complaints also concern other logistics companies in the postal and parcel sector, 90% of them were made against the former state-owned Deutsche Post, now DHL. From 2025 on, letter post may become a whopping 10.48% more expensive, and a normal letter will cost ten cents more. Source: jW
Warning strike phase thwarted
Negotiations between the Industrial Union for Construction, Agriculture and the Environment (IG BAU) and the Federal Guild Association of Building Cleaners (BIV) lasted a full 16 hours in Cologne last Thursday. In the end, they agreed on a wage increase of around 11% for the approximately 700,000 employees over a period of two years. In addition, there will be an increase in trainee pay, which will rise to up to 1,300 euros depending on the year of training. Around 800 employees from all over Germany took part in the demonstration to increase the pressure on the employers’ association. Source: nd
Bundeswehr prepares companies for the event of war
The German economy might face massive restrictions in the event of defence or tensions against other states. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Bundeswehr has started training companies based on the “Operation Plan Germany.” The first version of the strategy paper is 1,000 pages long and the details are allegedly undisclosed. Nonetheless, such a document apparently lists all buildings and infrastructure facilities that are particularly worthy of protection for military reasons. Also, in the event of an emergency, companies are advised to draw up a concrete plan of what is expected of which employees. For self-protection, it is important that the entire workforce gets a feel for security issues. Source: n-tv
