The news of the world: the RaiNews international press review

2021-12-09T07:08:12.983Z

The wait is equal to the curiosity. How will Germany change with the government of Olaf Scholz? From the energy transition to the future of the European Union, from electric cars to the smartphones we have in our pockets. The major European newspapers look to Berlin and ask themselves what and how it will change. The NYT tells us there are 200 million vaccinated Americans; Anne Applebaum writes a review of a book in Atlantic that is causing a lot of discussion in American universities: 'American cleptocracy: how the United States created the largest money laundering scheme in the world'. But the character of the day is one. Stern "It won't be easy." Interview with the Federal Chancellor. Scholz began the battle to get where he is now in August 2020. Back then, more than a year after the Bundestag elections,the SPD indicated him as a candidate for the chancellery, in a situation in which some party comrades wondered: why should I run? The party had also been below 15% in the polls and Scholz's mantra "I want to be Chancellor" seemed unrealistic. But he went on to say that the chances of getting the Chancellery weren't as great as in these elections, he understood that without Angela Merkel a percentage of a little over 20% could be enough to get to the Chancellery. The SPD was given up for dead and buried by many. Now it has the federal president, Frank Walter Steinmeier, the president of the Bundestag, Barbel Bas and is in government in 11 out of 16 Länder, in 7 the Prime Minister of the Länder is a Social Democrat. "I too have been changed by the pandemic," Scholz tells Stern.and explains how he wants to lead Germany towards the great goals of 2030, he trusts in the country's optimism and promises determination in fighting the fourth wave of infections. Hamburger Abendblatt Story of a Chancellor, Olaf Scholz Back in 2018, Olaf Scholz explained how he wanted to win the election. The fight against the pandemic has brought back issues dear to the Social Democrats before the eyes of the Germans and Scholz campaigned internally for his party's yes to the coalition agreement with the Liberals and the Greens. "We dare to make more progress," he said at the extraordinary congress of the SPD in Berlin. Bunte This is the woman who loves him. An anomalous first lady, Britta Ernst, an economics graduate, parliamentarian, former Minister of Education in Schleswig Holstein, is herself a top-level politician,what unites them and how they met. Tagesspiegel Federal Chancellor Scholz. The Hamburg school is a musical movement that feeds on indie, pop and punk influences, the lyrics are always in German. It has become a style, part of a youth movement. Olaf Scholz also relies on the Hamburg school. But that politics. First of all, it plays with continuity. He brings with him almost his entire team from the Federal Ministry of Finance; many of the staff have roots in Hamburg. The new government spokesperson will be Scholz's spokesperson, Steffen Hebestreit, former correspondent of the "Frankfurter Rundschau" in 2015 and initially representative of the City of Hamburg to the federal government in Berlin. Since then he has been one of the exegetes of the "Sphinx Scholz",whose tactics and actions are not always accessible to everyone. Welt Group photo with dissonances. When Olaf Scholz and his ministers are elected, there is almost a party atmosphere in the Bundestag, especially in the SPD. But there is no real optimism. Because the different orientations of the traffic light coalition can already be glimpsed. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's first trip leads directly to Paris. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron formed a couple that worked perfectly on the surface. She called him Emmanuel, he only spoke of Angela. In truth, they could hardly be more different: in the end, the combination was synonymous with stability, but above all with stagnation. The new government seems closer to France,but on closer inspection it becomes clear that concrete responses to the challenges of the future often go in opposite directions. Paris and Berlin will continue to have to laboriously work out their compromises. France's already high national debt has increased further as a result of the pandemic, reaching around 120% of gross domestic product, Germany is at just over 70%. This means that for the time being Paris is dependent on an expansive and loose monetary policy from the ECB, which German finance minister Christian Lindner will not like. In general, the French are fine with whatever it takes to meet the Paris climate goals, and there may be harmony here. However, it is unlikely that Habeck, like his predecessor Peter Altmaier,enthusiastically campaign for state funding to large corporations to create "European champions". The interests of the world export champion Germany will in the future often contradict the protectionism of its neighbors, which is now ecologically influenced. Defense policy: France is a nuclear power, Germany a child burned by history. Nowhere is the difference between the two clearer: the project of a strategic autonomy for Europe, so close to Macron's heart, has been dismissed as an "illusion" on the German side. For the new Berlin government, the transatlantic alliance remains "a central pillar and NATO an indispensable part of our security", as stated in the coalition agreement.TAZ The hunger for power finally satisfied. A young Olaf Scholz in the queue at the canteen, photo from the 1980s. AfD will chair the Interior Commission in the Bundestag. Not having prevented it is a political failure of the new traffic light coalition. Because the positions of president in the committees are assigned in several shifts according to the size of the parliamentary groups, traditionally, the first opposition party, now the Union, holds the presidency of the Budget Commission. The remaining commissions go on to follow. SPD, Verdi and FDP, who had access before AfD, had only to set the right priorities. Instead, the Health Commission also goes to AfD. Why the European Affairs Commission was more important to the Greens,so that their former parliamentary group leader Anton Hofreiter would receive consolation for his removal from ministerial post. The fact that the presidency of the Health Commission falls into the hands of the AfD in the midst of the corona pandemic is scandalous, as is the fact that the traffic light parties and the Union do not consider this function important enough not to leave it to the parliamentary representatives of the "movement". lateral thinkers ". This is not a good start for the new legislature. FAZ Scholz elected Chancellor First cabinet meeting of the traffic light coalition. Merkel wishes you a good job. For Schulz immediately a stop in Paris Scholz, however, has already lost about fifteen votes on the street on the first day, writes Berthold Kohler.How long can the coalition last? Much will depend on whether Scholz can "move something big". The internal and foreign policy challenges facing the new Chancellor and his government as of today will provide ample opportunities to do so. ABC Germany: tripartite government with 16 ministers compared to Spain's 22 FT Politics towards China first test by the German coalition Scholz has taken a hard line on Russian threats to Ukraine, the most pressing foreign policy issue for Berlin. When it came to China, the most important diplomatic challenge, the new chancellor looked very similar to the outgoing one. Asked if Germany would follow the US diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Scholz tarnished,promising to deliberate carefully and spitting pity on international cooperation. If this was an opportunity to set a different tone to relations with the largest export market for many German companies, Scholz did not take it. German industry - and its European suppliers - have benefited enormously from China, not only from its rapid growth but also from its innovation. Nobody in Europe thinks decoupling is a good idea. But Merkel's persistent belief in 'change through trade' has proved misplaced. China has changed in the wrong direction. The new German government must adapt its foreign policy accordingly. WSJ Merkel changes hands after 18 years as Chancellor. Pfizer: the recall of the vaccine effective against Omicron.China's central bank under tight state control. The People's Bank of China has never been as politically independent as a Western central bank, but it has nonetheless enjoyed special status in the nation's economic hierarchy. Now, President Xi Jinping's reorganization of China's financial sector is eliminating all of this. In recent weeks, Communist Party discipline inspectors from China's leading anti-corruption agency have visited the central bank headquarters in central Beijing. Officials briefed on the matter said the inspectors asked questions, reviewed documents, and delivered an unusually stern message: Beijing has little tolerance for any central bank independence talk; the monetary authority,like any other part of the government, it is accountable to the party. Le Figaro Germany says goodbye to Angela Merkel and enters the Olaf Scholz era. Macron wants to make Europe a springboard for 2022. The head of state today presents the priorities of the current French presidency of the European Union. The opportunity to enter the presidential campaign game. Faced with Marine Le Pen or Eric Zemmour, the contrast will allow Macron not to get carried away in the dangerous back and forth with extreme theses on Europe. But for Macron the European challenge is also dangerous. Any progress with the German partner must be negotiated, it will not be free. And it doesn't mean it will bring immediate electoral profits. The Atlantic The kleptocrats next door. Casey Michel's book is released: American kleptocracy shell company,companies with anonymous debt and funds based in offshore tax havens such as Jersey or the Cayman Islands are hiding what some believe may be up to 10% of global GDP: money earned from narcotics operations, stolen from legitimate institutions, or simply hidden from purpose of avoiding taxation. In this world, theft is rewarded. Taxes are not paid. Law enforcement agencies are powerless and underfunded. The regulation is something to dodge, not to respect. Most voters and citizens of the world's democracies are vaguely aware of this kingdom, but imagine it exists in distant autocracies or on exotic tropical islands. They are wrong. It's in our house. From 2006 to 2016, Kolomoisky related companies acquired half a dozen steel mills,four office buildings and a hotel convention center in Cleveland, an office park in Dallas, an out of service Motorola factory near Chicago. The money for the purchases would come from the coffers of PrivatBank, a Ukrainian bank owned by Kolomoisky and, according to Ukrainian investigators, defrauded by Kolomoisky. The money flowed into the Midwest via shell companies in Cyprus, the British Virgin Islands and Delaware, with the assistance of the US arm of Deutsche Bank. From the Editorial staff kommersant.ru Summit overlooking Kiev Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden discussed Ukraine without Ukraine The presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, held their second meeting this year, but the first in the format of a video summit.They devoted most of their time to the Ukrainian question. Nothing specific could be agreed, but judging by the parties' comments, Moscow and Washington intend to continue the dialogue. After the negotiations, both sides first issued press releases. The Kremlin message states that "the prevailing place in the conversation was occupied by the problems associated with the internal Ukrainian crisis and the lack of progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements, which are the undisputed basis for a peaceful solution". The Russian leader, according to the statement, "illustrated Kiev's destructive line aimed at completely dismantling the Minsk agreements and the agreements reached in the Normandy format,and expressed serious concern about Kiev's provocative actions against the Donbass. "A brief White House press release soon after the talks also suggests that Ukraine was the main topic of the talks:" President Biden expressed deep concern of the United States and our European allies for Russia's escalation of forces around Ukraine and made it clear that the United States and our allies will respond with decisive economic and other measures in the event of a military escalation. President Biden reaffirmed the support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and called for a reduction in escalation and a return to diplomacy. "On the Russian side, theRussian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov gave further details on the talks. He pointed out that President Putin had designated the "red lines in a conversation with his American counterpart. These lines exclude any further NATO advance eastward and the deployment on the territory of Ukraine, as well as other neighboring states, of systems of defense. armaments, especially offensive weapons, which threaten us ". Yuri Ushakov quoted the words of Vladimir Putin, who addressed Joe Biden: "Putin said that you Americans are worried about our battalions on Russian territory thousands of kilometers from the United States, and we are really worried about our safety. , the security of Russia in a global sense, on a global scale. This is atabout what Putin commented at the end of the conversation, summarizing the conversation ". According to Yuri Ushakov, the two leaders stressed that" taking into account the special responsibility of the two countries in maintaining international stability, Moscow and Washington should not reduce, but to on the contrary, to continue the dialogue at various levels, including the presidential one ".