Radio license: Haseloff's coalition has a week to save itself

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If you don't know what to do, form a working group, is an old saying in politics.

But what if you can't come to terms with a working group or a committee?

Then you can still adjourn.

Or better: interrupt a session.

As long as possible, for example for a whole week.

That is exactly what happened on Wednesday morning in the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt.

The meeting of the media committee began there at 10.05 a.m.

There was only one item on the agenda: the increase in the license fee by 86 cents as of January 1st, 2021.

Source: dpa infographic, infographic WORLD

After an hour of lively discussion, an agreement on this single item on the agenda was postponed for seven days.

By December 9th at 10 a.m., the representatives of the coalition parties of the CDU, SPD and Greens want to have agreed on a common position.

Should that fail, the Kenya coalition led by Christian Democrat Reiner Haseloff will be at an end.

There are three suggestions

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The CDU parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt has been rejecting an increase in contributions for a long time.

The Greens and the SPD, on the other hand, do not want the state treaty that has already been ratified by 14 other state parliaments to fail.

Thuringia has not yet approved the contract either.

In the event that the Union and AfD should reject the contract in the Magdeburg state parliament in mid-December, the Social Democrats and the Greens have announced that they will terminate the government.

The coalition committee had already met in the great hall of the State Chancellery since Tuesday morning until late at night in order to reconcile the opposing positions.

Vain.

There are currently

in the room.

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Proposal one:

The CDU does not want to stop the increase in contributions through a vote in the state parliament, but with a legal trick.

The majority of the media committee should therefore call on the state government to withdraw the state treaty.

The commission for determining the broadcasting fees, a non-party institution, should then carry out a new calculation for Saxony-Anhalt.

The CDU argument: In the times of the corona pandemic, the financial burdens on the population have increased considerably, and the economic uncertainties are great.

An increase in the contribution therefore no longer has any economic justification.

Proposal two:

The SPD wants to approve the contribution increase in principle, but combine this vote with a request to implement further reforms in the public broadcasters.

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Proposal three:

The Greens also want to pass the State Treaty, but postpone the increase in contributions by half a year.

Since these ideas are partially mutually exclusive, no solution was found in the marathon sessions on Tuesday from eight in the morning until shortly before midnight.

Time was running out, after all, the media committee was supposed to take a decision on Wednesday.

The Greens and Social Democrats insisted that this decision be postponed because there was no agreement.

The CDU leadership gave in on Tuesday afternoon in the coalition committee on this point.

When the Greens announced exactly that, the CDU parliamentary group initially withdrew this concession.

The nerves were on edge.

The resistance of the CDU parliamentary group remains tough

It is therefore a small miracle that the media committee postponed the vote with the votes of the CDU, Greens and SPD.

In Magdeburg there was talk of “intensive individual ventilation” in this context.

According to WELT information, haunting discussions took place during the night and in the morning between the CDU leadership around Prime Minister Haseloff and the state chairman Holger Stahlknecht on the one hand and individual CDU members of the state parliament on the other.

Haseloff and Stahlknecht absolutely want to avoid collapse of the coalition;

especially in the middle of the pandemic.

But resistance in the CDU parliamentary group to an increase in contributions is still tough.

The fact that the conflict between the coalition parties escalated towards the end of the year and that it is now not just about 86 cents a month but the future of the state government is the result of unresolved and long-smoldering conflicts.

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Haseloff signed the interstate broadcasting agreement with the other 15 prime ministers in June - with the written addition that there was no majority in the state parliament for an increase in the contribution.

But this open contradiction was not resolved for months.

The management of the corona crisis was at the fore of government work.

In November Haseloff also took over the chairmanship of the Federal Council.

There are now seven days to find a way out - which should also be face-saving for all coalition parties.

Media researchers criticize ARD and ZDF for corona reporting

ARD and ZDF would have created a "mass media tunnel vision" with their reporting on the corona pandemic.

That's what two media scientists from Passau say.

Source: WELT / Nicole Fuchs-Wiecha

Haseloff has appeared increasingly perplexed, sometimes desperate, in the past few days, report confidants.

In the coalition committee, the prime minister warned urgently of a "mess" that the CDU would get into if it rejected the contribution increase together with the AfD.

"We don't need any teachings from Berlin"

This scenario also moves politics in Berlin.

The SPD and the Greens are already painting the ghost of a black and brown collaboration in Magdeburg on the wall.

In the Adenauer House, too, people fear the idea that the super election year 2021 could begin with a renewed debate on how the Union should delimit the AfD - triggered by the behavior of a regional association over which one has little or no influence.

“We don't need any instructions from Berlin,” said the media policy spokesman for the CDU parliamentary group, Markus Kurz, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the committee meeting.

Kurz also refers to the coalition agreement in which the CDU, SPD and Greens agreed in spring 2016 on "stable contributions".

The members of the media committee sit in the state parliament canteen, which has been converted into a conference room due to the corona pandemic

Source: dpa / Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

The fact that Union politicians from Bavaria or from the federal government are now calling the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt to order does not impress him or other group members.

For others, disciplinary threats from Berlin tend to have the opposite effect.

“The greater the pressure from Berlin, the more unruly they become!” Says a CDU state politician.

"We leave no doubt that we are sticking to our goal," said Kurz in the committee meeting.

That means: With the Union in Saxony-Anhalt there is no contribution increase to be made.

A compromise in the coalition must be found beyond approval of the state treaty.

Is that possible?

At least the representatives of the coalition parties at the meeting, which took place in the large state parliament canteen for hygienic reasons, emphasized the willingness to reach an understanding.

"We have decided to find a common solution," emphasized a representative of the Greens;

one social democrat spoke of "serious will".

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Kurz also indicated willingness to deal with “constructive proposals”.

That was mainly a word bell;

however, in a friendlier tone than on the previous evening, when the representatives of the three parties had left the crisis meeting in the State Chancellery largely frustrated.

Media researchers criticize ARD and ZDF for corona reporting

ARD and ZDF would have created a "mass media tunnel vision" with their reporting on the corona pandemic.

That's what two media scientists from Passau say.

Source: WELT / Nicole Fuchs-Wiecha

Inquiries from the opposition representatives in the media committee as to what a solution could look like in seven days went unanswered.

The AfD accused the CDU of having gambled away its credibility on the subject.

Kurz countered that as a representative of the opposition it was easy to talk;

after all, the conflict is about “very, very much”.

The representative of the left declared in the direction of the coalition parties that it was "beyond his imagination how you want to do that".

He wasn't the only one in the Landtag canteen.

The meeting of the media committee will continue next Wednesday at 10 a.m.

From now on the clock is ticking.