GERMANY: Anniversary of Hanau Attack & more – 22nd Feb 2024

Hallo from BA! This is the Rorshok Germany Update from the 22nd of February twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Germany.

Monday the 19th marked the 4th anniversary of the racist attack in the city of Hanau, in the state of Hesse. On the night of the 19th of February twenty twenty a gunman shot and killed nine people at two shisha bars. The dead were from Kurdish, Sinti, Turkish, Afghan, Bulgarian, and Romanian backgrounds, which is why the killer chose them. Every year, the victims' families call for a march of remembrance to honor the dead, which politicians have used to give speeches extending condolences. The families repeatedly criticized this, since they say that it was these politicians and their parties' participation in the alienation of marginalized communities that led to the surge of far-right extremism in Germany. Every year, the police become the focus of attention, as on the night of the attack they did not do enough to stop the terrorist and continued to harass the affected communities. This year, the police even threw candles from the memorial site into the trash right after the procession left.

Moving on, the neoliberal Free Democratic Party, or FDP, made headlines this week. On Monday the 19th, they publicly declared that a government coalition between them and the conservative Christian Democrats, or CDU, would be more fruitful than the current coalition between the Social Democrats, the Greens, and the Liberals. Most commentators see this as part of the FDP’s struggle to survive. Current polls put the FDP at under 5%, which is the electoral threshold to get into parliament. The conservatives were reserved in their reaction and made sure to point out that the Liberals are still part of the government and responsible for its failures. The FDP and CDU together wouldn’t have a majority in parliament, so if the FDP leaves the coalition, that won’t lead to a new government with the CDU, but rather to elections being held again. And those would most likely be disastrous for the FDP, so it currently seems unlikely that anything will change within the constellation of the government.

The Munich Security Conference, or MSC, began on Friday the 16th and lasted until Sunday the 18th. Several heads of state and officials of all major Western powers attended the MSC. But in the past years the focus has slowly been shifting towards the southern hemisphere, and more and more players from all around the globe are going to the conference.

Again this year, Ukrainian President Selensky spoke and urged the West to keep supporting his country (he was probably asking for the states to send money, weapons, and aid). Another focus of the MSC was the Israel-Hamas war. While most Western powers, including German chancellor Scholz, didn’t say much about the conflict and instead focused more on the Ukrainian war, the participants from the southern hemisphere accused the West of having double standards in dealing with the two conflicts. Another important topic of discussion was the possible re-election of former president Donald Trump and the impacts this would have on America’s aid to Ukraine.

The murder of Alexei Navalny, the famous Russian opposition leader, was another big topic. His widow, who has been in exile since the first attempt on her husband's life in twenty twenty-one, spoke at the MSC and said that Putin would have to pay for what he did.

Following the death of Alexei Navalny, the foreign secretary summoned the Russian ambassador, probably to talk about the opposition leader passing on. Navalny had been incarcerated in Russia for several years, following his vocal criticism of Putin’s regime. The German government condemned the murder of Navalny and urged Putin to hand over his body. The Russian government is, of course, denying all involvement in the death of the prominent opposition leader.

Still on foreign affairs: after the formation of the US-led coalition to fight Houthi Rebels in the Red Sea, the European Union has announced its own initiative in the region. Next to one German frigate, Denmark, Greece, and Italy will send ships. This operation is separate from the US-led coalition called Operation Prosperity Guardian. In December last year the EU had already announced that they were thinking of forming their own military operation to protect civilian shipping from attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthi Militia.

Staying with EU politics, Ursula Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said on Monday the 19th that she would run for a second term. Interestingly, the European technocracy works in a way that Von der Leyen, or any commission president has to be elected only by members of the commission, which is made up of the heads of government of the European states. Ordinary citizens cannot participate in the elections. Von der Leyen is very popular among governments in the EU, but not necessarily with all electorates.

Back to Germany, we hope that you don’t need to fly through Frankfurt, because in its airport the ground personnel of the company Lufthansa are currently on strike. The union Verdi is demanding a 12.5% raise and a flat bonus of 3,000 Euros due to inflation. The heads of the union and the HR managers of Lufthansa will meet on Wednesday the 21st to try and settle the conflict.

Next up, the Minister of Work Hubertus Heil of the Social Democrats announced that pensions will likely be below inflation again soon. While in recent years pensions overall rose by around 6% in the East and by a bit over 4 % in the West, inflation was consistently at around 6 %. This meant that even though the individual pension recipient would get more money, the buying power of that money would still be below the level of the previous year.

Also, the inequality in rising rates between East and West is a common problem. Pensions, wages, and social welfare are usually much lower in the East than in the West, a remnant of the separation of Germany.

One thing that shouldn’t be affected by inflation is the much-criticized deal between the Bundesliga, the national football league, and foreign investors. Following heavy criticism from the fans over fears that this could lead to increased commercialization of the sport, the American investor Blackstone, formerly Blackrock, decided to pull out of the deal. Fans are afraid that the league could fundamentally change if the pact goes ahead. These fears might not be completely unfounded, as the Spanish football league, La Liga, following such a deal now holds the final of their national cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

That one investor now pulled out means that there’s only one investment fund still participating in the deal. Since there is no competition between bidders, the league is now in a weaker position in the negotiations.

Aaaand that’s it for this week!

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