One week after the Bundestag elections, one thing is certain: talks take place and will continue to do so. The exploratory groups of the SPD and FDP, CDU/CSU and FDP, SPD and Greens met in Berlin on Sunday afternoon and evening. This means that, following the first exploratory talks between the two chancellor-making parties, the […]
Further details have now been finalized ahead of exploratory talks on the formation of a three-party traffic light coalition comprising the SPD, the Greens and the FDP or a four-party Jamaica coalition consisting of the CDU, the CSU, the FDP and the Greens. The first date for talks between the CDU/CSU and FDP has been […]
An unwritten rule for candidates for the Bundestag is: three attempts – then it’s over. But if you’re 36 and running as a direct candidate for the fourth time, that rule doesn’t apply. In 2017, environmental activist Karl Bär narrowly failed to make it onto the state list of the Green Party in Bavaria. Bär […]
After the leaders of the Greens and the FDP met unexpectedly on September 28 and obviously did not disagree, the following steps have now been decided:Greens name assessment team and procedureThe Federal Executive Board’s leading motion for the so-called Council of the States on Saturday, entitled “New Politics,” contains the exploratory mandate and names a […]
The Federal Information Security Agency has launched an investigation into mobile devices made by Chinese electronics manufacturer Xiaomi. Previously, the Lithuanian cybersecurity agency NCSC had noticed a Xiaomi smartphone. The device was running software in the background that detected and censored certain terms undesirable from the perspective of the Chinese state and party leadership – […]
Intensive negotiations between the Biden administration and the Directorate-General for Justice under EU Commissioner Didier Reynders are currently underway, as the latter confirmed on Tuesday. Negotiations were progressing well. Alex Greenstein, the Director at the US Department of Commerce (DoC) responsible for the Privacy Shield, reported this week at the Bitkom Privacy Conference that he […]
Armin Laschet is surprisingly resilient. Ralph Brinkhaus from Gütersloh in eastern Westphalia, at least from the same state association, has been re-elected by the parliamentary group as chairman for six months. That is longer than Laschet wanted and shorter than Ralph Brinkhaus had hoped. Armin Laschet admitted mistakes at the parliamentary group meeting. Thus the […]
Officially, the EU Commission is talking about the standardization of chargers. To be sure, these are partly regulated. But the core of the regulation is actually the other end of the cable tangle: the charging sockets of smaller electronic devices.In future, these are to follow a uniform standard. And that is a much bigger revolution […]
The Bundestag election campaign is drawing to a close. When the polls close at 6 p.m. on Sunday, one topic will have been (almost) absent: Germany’s relationship with European politics. In all the major contest formats, the topic came up short or was not mentioned altogether. As did the rest of the world. It is […]
The dust is resettling: Following a telephone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden, the Élysée Palace and the White House issued a joint press statement this evening. In it, the US side admits unusually direct to mistakes: “The situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of […]