the Big Boris show is over – but is it really? In London, it took Prime Minister Boris Johnson an extremely long time to realize that he simply cannot govern without a party and without a cabinet. Even if you take into account that in his self-image he was the only one who won the general election. But the resignation that everyone is talking about is not even a half. Although Johnson has announced that he will step down as leader of the Conservative Tories, he will remain in office until a successor is found – possibly until the party conference in October.
Three or four months is plenty of time for political and propagandistic tricks, which the 58-year-old politician with the confused aura has mastered. At least he’s secured a chance to celebrate his July 30 wedding to Carrie Johnson at a big party at Checkers, the British Prime Minister’s official country home, as planned. The invitations have already been sent, and there is no sign of a lockdown either.
In the middle of a hot summer, with water shortages in Italy, we give a foreshadowing of what could be in store for us in the “coming emergency winter” with a snowy picture of the Brandenburg Gate. Our association has three words: “cold, dark, expensive”. Germany is still dependent on Vladimir Putin’s drug, Russian gas, which covers 18 percent of Germany’s total energy consumption. At the moment, however, only 40 instead of 100 percent of the substance is running through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline (technical problems), and ten-day maintenance work will begin next Monday. That could provide the next rationale for throttling.
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We describe how companies and the state create emergency plans and the search for new energy sources is expanded. Not much more than the tankers from America with fracking gas are to be expected. And it will still be years before renewable energies free us from the self-imposed prison of “Russian gas”. Politicians will therefore prepare us, carefully and in well-chosen words, for renunciation and deprivation.
The greatest hope is still: a mild winter.
Those who are closely associated with the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom are obviously in mortal danger the “Kalashnikov” in Putin’s arsenal of economic weapons that he has long aimed at us. At least five managers associated with Gazprom have died under dubious circumstances in recent weeks. Most recently, Yuri Voronov was found dead in the pool of his villa in a St. Petersburg suburb. The logistics company wanted to help Gazprom with Arctic projects. In January, ex-Gazprom manager Leonid Shulman was also found dead in the bathroom of his house in the same town.
In the same area, Alexander Tyulyakov, deputy director general of Gazprom, died in February: hanged in his villa. In April, the former deputy head of Gazprom Bank, Vladislav Avayev, died along with his wife and daughter – allegedly an extended suicide. And finally, in May, Andrei Krukovsky fell to his death while hiking off a cliff. He managed the ski resort Krasnaya Polyana operated by Gazprom. The Polish think tank “Warsaw Institute” believes that traces should be destroyed Scams between the Kremlin and the state company could lead.
Gazprom can also work with the more elegant means of humor. The huge state conglomerate includes important media, including the video portal Rutube. Now it has become known that the Russian comedians Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, alias “Vovan” and “Lexus”, are organizing digital bell pranks all over the world. So they turned into Vitali Klitschko to elicit something explosive about Ukraine from the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey.
But they also called Justin Trudeau, George Bush Jr. or JK Rowling. In an interview with the ARD magazine “Kontraste” they say: “We work for Rutube and are Rutube ambassadors. So that’s where we get our money from.” Next week we’ll see what Giffey had to say to these comedians.
The federal chairman of the Greens questions the debt brake, to which the coalition partner FDP feels committed.
(Photo: Photothek/Getty Images)
The working conditions in the traffic light coalition are now similar to the conditions in a shared flat for students, who were all new to the city, celebrated happily at first, but are now at odds about cleaning plans and filling the fridge. The good feeling isn’t completely gone yet, but somehow it’s so annoying that you often drink your beer outside.
How else should it be when the Greens and the Liberals don’t begrudge each other their successes and Olaf Scholz, who has miraculously been pushed into the Chancellery, has to make sure that an SPD isn’t suddenly behind the popular Greens, who are apparently forgiven more than others . In an interview with the Handelsblatt, the leader of the Greens, Omid Nouripour, admits that he longs for summer vacation: “Now the break is needed more urgently than ever.”
In detail, the politician says about…
- …the government climate: “It goes without saying that in a coalition you sometimes have to struggle for solutions. At the same time, we implemented important projects, for example various laws for the rapid expansion of renewable energies this week.”
- …a rethinking of nuclear power: “In terms of social issues, the continued operation of the three nuclear power plants would not help us. We’re talking about nuclear power here. This isn’t clumsy bureaucracy, it’s dead serious, literally. If even one screw is loose, entire regions have a problem. Nobody can take responsibility for that, not even Friedrich Merz or Markus Söder.”
- ...the power supply: “Nobody is happy that we now have to buy gas in Qatar or leave coal power in reserve any longer. But it is also clear to everyone: the war is shaking many certainties in society as a whole. We must do everything in our power to prevent the country from de-industrialization and prepare as best we can for the gas ban.”
For the second time in a row, Telekom boss Tim Höttges wins the “rhetoric ranking” of the most talkative Dax CEOs. At least that was the opinion of the University of Hohenheim and the jury of the European Speechwriter Network – also because Höttges described the goal of complete mobile phone coverage for the railways as a “black shepherd”, while the competition delivered more Dalmatian quality, so to speak.
Newcomer Roland Busch from Siemens also did well with his selected episodes about employees, as did Theodor Weimer, CEO of Deutsche Börse, who provided the essay. Of course, boxed sentences and word monsters like “photon counting technology” also made it into CEO speeches. Last in the ranking was Dominik Richter, whose company Hellofresh is no longer in the Dax. In this case, a rhetoric seminar for a comeback should not help.
Matthias Brandt as Magnus A. Cramer at a pool party.
(Photo: Netflix)
My cultural tip for the weekend: “King of Stonks”, a highly amusing series on Netflix by director Jan Bonny and the German production company Bildundtonfabrik, which, after all the articles, books, documentaries and films, makes the Wirecard fraud phenomenon pop up for what it really was: a single monkey dance about money and power and a little bit Future (mainly “digital”). Matthias Brandt as Dr. Magnus Cramer from “Cablecash” never loses the art of storytelling that makes stock hypes possible in the first place, flanked by Thomas Schubert in the role of CEO whisperer. They give the monkey sugar and everyone wants more.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
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