FAZ early thinkers: Does Merz say yes to the women's quota?

The most important things for you this Wednesday:

Rebecca Boucsein

Editor on duty at FAZ.NET.

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1. Consultations on a weapon wish list from Kiev

2. Gazprom turns off the gas tap

3. Does Merz say yes to the women's quota?

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1. Consultations on weapons wish list from Kyiv

The defense ministers of more than 40 countries meet in Brussels.

Ukraine Wants More Heavy Weapons – As Armed Forces Suffer Defeat

Demands:

A significant number of multiple rocket launchers, a complete replacement of Soviet guns, heavily armored vehicles, combat aircraft and missile defense systems: the wish list from Kiev is long, which the defense ministers of more than 40 countries will discuss today in Brussels before a meeting of NATO ministers.

It will be the third consultation in the so-called Ramstein format created by Washington in April.

Losses:

Although the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently announced the war goal of liberating all of Ukraine, including Crimea, his armed forces are on the verge of defeat.

According to observers, the industrial city of Severodonetsk will soon fall.

Then Moscow would have achieved an important war goal, control of the entire Luhansk region.

Experts do not expect a fundamental change, the "best short-term solution we can hope for is some kind of standoff in Donbass," said a Western intelligence official.

Scholz in Kyiv?

Meanwhile, the French government is curbing speculation about a trip to Kyiv by President Emmanuel Macron, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday.

According to government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire, this is just one of "several options".

There is no decision, she said.

Also in Berlin one did not want to confirm corresponding reports.

What is certain, however, is that Macron is traveling to neighboring Moldova today.

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2. Gazprom turns off the gas supply

The Russian energy giant Gazprom is reducing the maximum gas delivery volumes through the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline to Germany by 40 percent.

What's behind it?

Sanctions:

According to the Kremlin-controlled group, the reason for the reduction is delays in repair work by Siemens.

Accordingly, a gas compressor unit did not return in time from repairs.

According to Siemens, the turbines are being serviced in Canada - because of the sanctions it is currently not possible to bring the unit back to Russia.

According to the company, it is in contact with the Canadian and German governments.

Technical problems:

The federal government regards the security of supply as secured.

An insider reports that the gas supply does not have to be throttled so much simply because of the missing turbine.

However, according to Gazprom, there are other technical problems.

Injection of billions:

Meanwhile, the federal government wants to support Gazprom Germania, a key company for the gas supply in Germany, with an amount of billions to prevent bankruptcy.

At the beginning of April, the federal government took control of the German Gazprom subsidiary via the Federal Network Agency.

The reason for the step was the planned "opaque sale" of the company to a Russian company.

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3. Does Merz say yes to the women's quota?

Women are underrepresented in the CDU.

The party has been discussing how this can be changed for a long time.

Today the debate is gaining momentum again.