it is a picture of happiness that went around the world a few hours ago. The hero sits at a brown table decorated with the presidential coat of arms and emphatically signs a long-contested law to modernize the infrastructure. He is surrounded by clapping, laughing people, and the evening sun is shining along with it. So much love, peace and happiness has not been around US President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party for a long time.
Vice President Kamala Harris, so far rather inconspicuous in the White House and recently already counted in the scheming Washington, is right at the front among the cheering. “America is moving again,” said Biden at the ceremony. After all, another 550 billion dollars are now flowing into roads, bridges, airports, ports, railways, local transport and water supplies. A total of $ 1.2 trillion has been passed, which, to the sorrow of Donald Trump, a total blocker in Florida, made it possible for 13 Republicans. A second, equally voluminous package for social and climate protection is still an object of contention for the Democrats.
“Never without France” – that was the simple but substantial mantra of former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt when it came to European and world politics. The relationship between the two countries was never “amour fou”, but also never “on the rocks”: So not extreme, rather a stable, slightly fluctuating purpose marriage, as it used to be arranged in rural areas for agro-economic scaling. Now, on the one hand, Germany is experiencing Angela Merkel almost in the event hall, on the other hand, France will take over the presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2022 (and Germany the G7 presidency).
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
I mean: This community is exposed to a few tests, it has to find itself anew and it needs a few strong symbols.
Bruno Le Maire, 52, France’s Minister for Finance and Economy, has a few ideas. He spreads it out in an interview with Handelsblatt correspondent Gregor Waschinski. What is certain is that Olaf Scholz should like them much more than Christian Lindner, as Finance Minister anything but a dream casting of the Élysée Palace. In detail, the French politician, who has also written a few solid books, says about …
- … the Maastricht Treaty: “Do we continue to apply rules such as the obsolete 60 percent limit for national debt, or do we try together and calmly to think about new rules? We propose rules that take into account the economic and fiscal situation of each country. And we want rules that do not hinder indispensable investments in new technologies and the fight against climate change. “
- … France’s debt morale: “I would like to assure our partners in the euro zone that we will repay this debt and that we will continue to reform – for example unemployment insurance.”
- … a German traffic light coalition: “We hope for European ambitions and expect from the German government a common vision for the future of Europe in view of the growing power of China and the risk of a conflict between the USA and China.”
- … the EU’s green investment rules: “We cannot think of so-called taxonomy without nuclear power. We have invested in nuclear power for decades. It’s part of French identity and a strategic choice. Nuclear power does not cause any CO2 emissions. “
Phew! Statism, debt, nuclear power – it won’t be easy, although all actors are willing and intelligent. But there is also a reason of the two speeds, if you follow Voltaire: “All people are smart – some before, others after.”
The power and impotence of a government show when a large corporation threatens to emigrate. This is currently happening in the Netherlands, where the oil company Royal Dutch Shell has announced that it will remove the royal Dutch from the name as well as the second headquarters in The Hague. One relies entirely on London. That is an “unwelcome surprise,” the conservative government writes. Prime Minister Mark Rutte is apparently doing everything possible to overturn, at the literal last minute, a 15 percent dividend tax that Shell executives have cited as the reason for the exodus.
Unilever was also bothered by it. The consumer goods giant has already abolished its English-Dutch dual structure in favor of the island solution. Shell also quarrels with the court in The Hague, which has condemned the group to save greenhouse gases more quickly. And the Dutch pension fund ABP – skeptical of oil, coal and gas stocks – has unleashed a large stake in Shell. So a lot of trouble in the tulip country. But the aphorists point out that the bee draws its honey from the same flower as the wasp draws its venom.
He may be uncomfortable, undisciplined, and possibly self-indulgent, but he is not the “Sarrazin of the Greens”, even if he is now treated like that: Tübingen’s Mayor Boris Palmer. The state board of the Baden-Württemberg Greens has now applied for a party regulation procedure, commonly called the expulsion, alternatively two years dormant party membership.
Palmer has been provoking for years and “deliberately” and “seriously” violated the principles of the party. It is a “long list of calculated slip-ups and staged taboo breaks” around issues of migration, refugees and human rights. There is no place in the Greens for someone who flirts with racism. Palmer wants to check everything in detail with his well-known lawyer Rezzo Hose, who belligerently announced: “We will defend ourselves by all means.”
And then there is the Tegernsee, the most impressive postcard beauty in Bavaria, where a business meeting in the Bräustüberl is called “Stammtisch of lonely hearts”, although money doesn’t make you lonely. Everything is a little bigger than in the non-Tegernsee-Land: the power of nature, the attitude to life, the density of celebrities, the wealth, the real estate prices, the champagne consumption, but also the traffic jams and the lack of affordable living space. New major construction projects with a total volume of 700 million euros are in the planning stage, with prominent family entrepreneurs in the thick of it.
Basically, everything is very simple, I thought at some point during the research: Because Corona continues to increase the run on the beautiful valley, but the mountains and the lake are no longer, the market economy regulates this through even higher prices, which is why the mayors of the five lake communities are now politically creative for their part. The Tegernsee Report: an idyll at the limit.
I wish you a happy day.
I warmly greet you
you
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
You can subscribe to the Morning Briefing here: