display

On the night from Friday to Saturday, Bodo Ramelow (Linke), the Prime Minister of the State of Thuringia, said that he was playing games extensively on his mobile phone at the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK).

"I can manage up to ten levels of Candy Crush," he said of the MPK.

The body is one of the most important in the state in the pandemic.

There the basic rights of the citizens are suspended, there they talk about the bad vaccination strategy.

Ramelow spoke casually about deceased citizens.

The Prime Minister declared that his country had "too many dead" to make points in debates.

Ramelow called the Chancellor "the little Merkel".

Even though the words were casual, it was obvious that Ramelow meant them.

He told what came into his head, knowing full well that more than 1000 people were listening to him at times, including a lot of journalists, that Manuela Schwesig (SPD), another prime minister, and other well-known politicians were present.

display

Ramelow gave the open insight into his thoughts and actions during the largest violation of fundamental rights since the country's existence in a new mobile phone app called Clubhouse, in which he - like Schwesig - spent several hours on Friday evening with SPD party youth (Jusos) and others Teenagers spoke.

Clubhouse is a new social network in which users talk to each other instead of writing.

Anyone (with an iPhone) can register for the app.

The small hurdle that a new user has to be suggested for participation by an existing one is more of a marketing ploy than a serious permanent limitation.

Clubhouse is a fascinating space that many politicians, for example Kevin Kühnert (SPD) and Philipp Amthor (CDU), have been using for a few days for self-marketing, often several times a day.

They hardly have to fear critical questions or even a serious discussion atmosphere there.

display

It is a journalistic duty to write about Ramelow's political statements and his self-described behavior in the pandemic.

There is also public interest in the fact that the top politician made ambiguous allusions in the round, which was partly organized by teenagers.

If a conservative politician had expressed himself accordingly, his future career might be called into question.

While the Jusos, rarely embarrassed to recognize sexism in details and to stop it, let the Prime Minister speak, his counterpart Schwesig tried gently to slow him down.

Ramelow himself sees the matter easily the next day.

He is aware that he did not speak in private.

"I am old enough to express myself freely and without intimidation in an open space," he wrote on Twitter.

"I found the evening very pleasant."

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

We will be happy to deliver them to your home on a regular basis.

Here you can listen to our WELT podcasts

We use the player from the provider Podigee for our WELT podcasts.

We need your consent so that you can see the podcast player and to interact with or display content from Podigee and other social networks.

Activate social networks

I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.

This allows personal data to be transmitted to third-party providers.

This may require the storage of cookies on your device.

More information can be found here.