Henning Ott
Dobrindt wants to prevent “arbitrary” associations
Federal Interior Minister Dobrindt (CSU) has presented plans for an “investment protection law”. Mergers should therefore only be possible if they are absolutely necessary and owners are compensated at the full market value.
Bastian Prockner
Merz wants the EU to have close trade ties with Asean states
Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Singapore's Prime Minister Lawrence Wong have spoken out in favor of closer trade relations between the EU and Asian countries. “We fully support Germany’s participation in the CPTPP,” Wong said on Tuesday after a meeting with the chancellor in Singapore, referring to the free trade agreement between Asian countries and some Latin American countries as well as Canada and Great Britain. Chancellor Merz pointed out that he was pushing the EU to further free trade agreements. “We are looking for partnerships that want to expand trade, particularly with regard to free world trade, open competition, the rules-based order and reliability, including within the WTO,” he said. You can find them in Singapore, but also in other Asian countries that think similarly.
In addition to Singapore, members of the CPTPP include Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico, Japan, Chile, Canada, Great Britain, Brunei and Malaysia. The core goal of the agreement is the extensive reduction of tariffs, the setting of common standards for digital trade, the protection of intellectual property as well as labor and environmental standards.
Vivian Melchert
Steinmeier begins state visit to China
At the start of his four-day state visit to China, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will visit the VW site in Hefei this Tuesday. The Volkswagen Group, which is struggling with major sales problems, has set up a research and development center there for the Chinese market. With his help, VW says it wants to shorten the development time for new models by around 30 percent and significantly reduce costs. This should help the company become competitive again in the world's largest car market.
Steinmeier wants to promote fair economic and trade relations in China that are mutually beneficial. To achieve this, imbalances must be reduced, according to the Federal President's Office. The Federal President wants to make this clear in a keynote speech at Peking University on Thursday and discuss it with China's head of state Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Qiang the following day.
Another topic will be China's future role in international relations. From Steinmeier's point of view, China's rise to become a world power must also be accompanied by the assumption of more responsibility. For example, China should use its good connections with Russia to advocate for an end to the war in Ukraine.
Anna Lena Stahl
CDU labor leader Radtke calls Audi's appearance with Trump "disturbing and pathetic"
The head of the CDU workers' wing, Dennis Radtke, sharply criticized Audi boss Gernot Döllner's appearance at a campaign event for US President Donald Trump. "The fact that German companies are investing abroad is initially a completely normal and understandable process. However, to turn this into an election campaign production for Donald Trump is disturbing and pathetic," Radtke told the Handelsblatt.
“Donald Trump’s policies are massively damaging German industry, including the automotive industry,” the CDU politician continued. Radtke called on the Volkswagen Group to draw conclusions from the appearance. “If the ethics and compliance rules for Volkswagen’s board of directors and supervisory board should represent more than a mixture of management calendar sayings and wall stickers, then they must now take a clear position on them.”
Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Olaf Lies (SPD), who is a member of the VW supervisory board, also took Radtke to task. “Olaf Lies, as the representative of the state of Lower Saxony on the supervisory board, is surprisingly taciturn.”
Anna Lena Stahl
Aigner as Federal President? Miersch: “I would be there!”
In the debate about possible candidates for the office of Federal President, SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch spoke out in favor of Ilse Aigner - and called for an early decision. "What are we waiting for? Doesn't Ilse Aigner already have a majority across party lines? I would be there!" said Miersch, referring to the Bavarian state parliament president, who is favored by the CSU. The sister party CDU is still keeping a low profile.
The SPD parliamentary group leader described Aigner as a “convinced democrat who shows a clear stance against right-wing extremism and resolutely stands up for our democratic values.” In coalition negotiations, the CSU politician was a reliable, constructive and fair negotiating partner. “After twelve men at the helm of our state, it is high time for a woman,” said Miersch. “And Ilse Aigner would be a Federal President who can bring our country together without giving in even a millimeter to our democracy.”
Miriam Braun
Schleswig-Holstein: SPD top candidate rules out coalition with the left
Schleswig-Holstein's SPD leading candidate Ulf Kampf is ruling out an alliance with the left in the north. “I currently see no prospects for a coalition,” said Prime Minister Daniel Günther’s challenger (CDU) to the German Press Agency. “Politically, the Left Party is far from being able and willing to take responsibility in a difficult situation.” The differences are too great, especially when it comes to internal security as well as budget and economic policy.
“It is a politically very isolated group with no willingness or ability to take real responsibility,” said Kampf. He also lacks any imagination for a four-party coalition with the left. The Left is currently not represented in the state parliament, but according to recent surveys it has a chance of returning to the state elections in April 2027. The CDU is currently clearly ahead in surveys, but must expect significant losses compared to 2022.
Miriam Braun
“Political knee-jerk reaction” – Bavarian Digital Minister criticizes Audi boss for appearing with Trump
The Bavarian State Minister for Digital, Fabian Mehring (Free Voters), criticizes the appearance of Audi boss Gernot Döllner at the side of US President Donald Trump. On Saturday evening at a campaign event in the US state of Georgia, he announced a billion-dollar investment in the USA. While Germany is fighting for jobs and locations, one of the “proudest flagships of our industry is being harnessed to the cart of an American election campaign show,” the minister writes in a post on LinkedIn.
The appearance is a “shocking symbol of the decline in self-confidence of our German industry.” Audi has to do business in the USA, writes the Bavarian Digital Minister. But he asks: “Since when has political kneeling been part of the business model of German premium manufacturers?” In his view, economic strength must not come at the expense of political independence. “Proud world market leaders must not become political circus animals,” he writes.
Tim Seckel
SPD politician sharply criticizes Audi's presence in the USA
There is outraged criticism from the SPD about the appearance of Audi CEO Gernot Döllner in US President Donald Trump's election campaign. The SPD traffic expert Isabel Cademartori spoke of election campaign help for an autocrat. “This is a disgrace, especially considering the history of the VW Group,” she said on Sunday in Berlin. The car manufacturer Audi is a Volkswagen subsidiary. The day before, Trump had announced the construction of an Audi factory in the US state of Georgia at an event. Döllner also appeared and thanked Trump for his support.
Cademartori criticized that while workers in Germany were trembling about the future of their jobs, Audi announced under Trump that it would invest billions in a new US plant "in the particularly politically contested state of Georgia, which will be crucial for the future majority in the Senate."
“Audi and the VW Group are thus justifying Trump's strategy of using a trade war to bring jobs to the USA at the expense of Europe, and are directly helping to ensure that the dismantling of democracy, violence against minorities and corruption can continue unchecked under this president,” said Cademartori, who is a member of the Bundestag and co-chair of the SPD Baden-Württemberg. “Campaigning offensively for an autocrat who is waging a trade war against Germany is a new low for the VW Group,” said the Social Democrat.
Vivian Melchert
Federal government releases further part of the oil reserve
Germany releases further oil reserves. In this way, the Federal Government is complying with international obligations, including a decision by the G7 countries, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said upon request. A corresponding regulation came into force on Thursday.
According to a key from the International Energy Agency (IEA), Germany is expected to contribute 19.5 million barrels of a total of 100 million barrels. According to the ministry, 6 million of these had been released by October. According to the ministry, the focus will initially be on releasing diesel and heating oil for the remaining 13.5 million barrels.
Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) had previously pointed out on the sidelines of an event on a planned refinery strategy that a regulation had been published in the Federal Law Gazette on Wednesday. The regulation temporarily reduces Germany's strategic oil reserves from 90 to 82 days.
Vivian Melchert
Chancellor Merz wants to deepen relations with Japan, South Korea and Singapore
Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants to deepen Germany's relations with these South and East Asian democracies during a visit to Japan, South Korea and Singapore next week. The visit particularly serves closer security and economic cooperation, said a government spokesman in Berlin on Friday. Like Germany, all three countries visited are committed to open, rule-based trade and would like to strengthen economic resilience and security, especially with regard to global supply chains. In addition, all three countries wanted to work more closely together in the technology sector and especially in artificial intelligence. Merz will be accompanied on his trip by a business delegation. Next Friday, the Chancellor wants to open the 19th Asia-Pacific Conference of German Business in Seoul. Merz will also visit the demilitarized zone on the border between South Korea and North Korea.
The government spokesman said it was also about promoting investments in Germany on the trip. That's why the trip also follows the efforts at the investment summit in Berlin earlier this week. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will travel to China next week. The spokesman emphasized that both trips were independent of each other, but the content had been agreed upon.
Vivian Melchert
Ministry of the Interior: No damage to the federal administration due to errors in PHP software is known
According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the vulnerabilities in the widely used PHP programming language have not caused any damage to federal authorities. “At this point in time, there are no reports of compromised IT systems either at the federal government, in the administration or in the regulated economy,” said a spokesman for the ministry in Berlin on Friday. The regulated economy refers to critical infrastructure such as the power supply, where operators must immediately report hacker attacks. This suggests that many operators installed a software update in a timely manner according to the recommendations and recognized the problem, said the spokesman. He could not say how many of the websites that were briefly taken offline by the federal administration were still offline.
After a security vulnerability in PHP software became known, companies, authorities and other organizations around the world temporarily took their websites offline to protect their IT systems. According to the cybersecurity company Cloudflare, the discovery of the PHP errors triggered a flood of hacker attacks. Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks put the number of servers and applications potentially at risk from the vulnerabilities at more than 22 million worldwide. It is estimated that around two thirds to three quarters of all websites are based on PHP.
Vivian Melchert
Meeting of Voigt, Söder and Kretschmer canceled
Due to the budget negotiations in Saxony, the meeting of the Prime Ministers of Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria planned for next week has been canceled. The Thuringian State Chancellery announced that Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) must take part in urgent budget discussions in Dresden.
The date was planned as a “Free State meeting” at Oppurg Castle in the Saale-Orla district of Thuringia with Thuringia's Prime Minister Mario Voigt (CDU), Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and Kretschmer. There, the three federal states wanted to expand their cooperation on political and social issues, it said in an announcement. The signing of a new cooperation agreement was also planned.
Jana Brüntjen
Heil open to candidacy for SPD leadership – under conditions
After the resignation of SPD leader Bärbel Bas, former Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil can imagine running for the SPD chairmanship under certain circumstances. “That is possible,” Heil told “Spiegel”. "But I will decide this carefully based on two questions. First: What should be the direction of the SPD? Second: What is the team?" In mid-October, Heil said on ARD: “I can’t rule it out.”
When asked what the answers would have to be for him to run, Heil said: “The SPD needs a clear course for what I call a solidarity-based meritocracy.” He mentioned respect for “commitment, commitment and performance”. What is also needed, among other things, is clarity in foreign and security policy as well as “a strong team”.
Julius Stockheim
Schwesig is promoting a federal-state group to examine the AfD
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig has spoken out in favor of a federal-state working group to examine a possible AfD ban procedure.
