A good 17 weeks after its launch, the new federal government is lamenting the first loss. No one could have imagined leaving so early, and if they had, the Social Democrats Christine Lambrecht (defense) and Karl Lauterbach (health) would have been nominated as farewell candidates.
But now the Green family minister, Anne Spiegel, has failed because of many things: personal failure as Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate during the Ahr Valley disaster, untruths when dealing with the affair, personal challenges – and ultimately pressure from the Greens leadership .
Now there is the problem that according to the Greens’ quotas, a left-wing woman has to follow the unfortunate politician Spiegel. Although Anton Hofreiter is considered a ministerial and left-wing, he is of the “wrong” gender.
And this is how parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge could come into play. Before the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein in May, the old Ariel motto should definitely apply in the second largest governing party: “Not just clean, but clean to the core.”
When it comes to helping Ukraine in the war against Russia, Chancellor Olaf Scholz seems to have the brake pedal as a point of reference. He now warns against “going it alone” in arms deliveries; he strives for “carefully balanced action”.
His Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, on the other hand, is bringing heavy weapons into play for the invaded country. The USA in particular are already taking action here. Material could also come from Rheinmetall. The Düsseldorf armaments group wants to deliver up to 50 tanks to the Ukraine.
(Photo: Rainer Lippert/CC/Wikipedia)
“The first Leopard 1 could be delivered in six weeks,” says CEO Armin Papperger. Terrible battles are looming in eastern Ukraine: the Russian army is apparently concentrating on the battle for Donbass and Luhansk – and is assembling troops here. The Russian side is already claiming that it has taken the port of Mariupol.
We will have to get used to the phenomenon of noteworthy Russia write-offs. Yesterday was a day when two major corporations were noticed with large minus amounts.
On the one hand, the major French bank Sociéte Générale said goodbye to its Russian business and sold its subsidiary Rosbank to the previous owner, the oligarch Vladimir Potanin. The Kehraus action incurred two billion euros in depreciation, but risks disappeared in the balance sheet.
The second case of balance sheet corrections induced by Vladimir Putin’s war concerns the chemical company BASF, whose CEO Martin Brudermüller has warned in apocalyptic tones of an energy embargo against Russia. BASF has to write off 1.1 billion euros to the subsidiary Wintershall Dea, in which the oligarch Mikhail Fridman is also involved.
Together they had lent money to the project company for Nord Stream 2 – the gas pipeline that became a balance sheet horror and an industrial ruin on the Baltic Sea floor.
(Photo: action press)
Now that we’re on the subject of gas: The Federal Republic’s attempt to quickly find a replacement for the economically cheap but politically very expensive Russian gas is gaining new impetus. Today, Hanseatic Energy Hub GmbH (HEH) will submit all the documents for the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Stade to the authorities.
The special feature: The US chemical group Dow Chemical is a minority shareholder in the terminal, which is being built on the American company’s premises. Unlike in France, Spain, Italy or the Netherlands, there is still not a single LNG terminal in Germany because Gazprom was allegedly so cheap in the past. In addition to Stade, Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel are under discussion as locations. “Turbo for LPG” is the title of our cover story.
IPOs are financial market stimulants, but at the moment there is a sanatorium calm here. The Ukraine war takes away investors’ willingness to trade. In addition, we know exactly how weak almost all companies that went public in 2021 and 2020 are doing.
There are, for example, the online platforms Auto1 and Mister Spex, which experienced price slumps of 75 and 65 percent respectively. Only the armaments company Hensoldt stands out positively with an increase of more than 100 percent, according to a report by our financial editors.
Stepstone from Springer and the hydrogen subsidiary Nucera from Thyssen-Krupp are hoping for an end to the slump, and a little later the orthopedic specialists from Otto Bock, the dating portal Parship or the fuel card provider DKV also want to take the step onto the floor.
An assessment by the “stock market guru” André Kostolany helps nervous types: “The stock exchange, that is, the financial market, is actually a theater in which the same play is always performed, but always under different titles.”
And then there’s Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, 41, whose private equity firm Affinity Partners receives beautiful gifts from the East. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which makes unpopular critics like Jamal Khashoggi disappear, is investing two billion dollars in the inexperienced newcomer.
Some see this as an “upfront payment” in the event that Trump returns to the White House. The others suspect a thank you for American services rendered, possibly arms sales. Maybe it’s a mixture of both.
The biggest problem here is that the public cannot find out exactly what favors someone like Kushner has done for the Saudis, says Walter Shaub, once director of the US Government Office of Ethics. Ex-Presidential Advisor Kushner has a personal connection to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He’s in good company with his financial dealings: the Saudis also put money in the investment fund of ex-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The amazed audience thinks: It has been proven that the biggest rip-offs come from small favours.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs