This weekend, the CDU leadership wants to sweep up a political shambles. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Christian Democrats were recently thrown out of a state parliament for the first time in their history. In Saxony-Anhalt, an AfD man was elected president of the state parliament - and no one can rule out that four votes also came from the CDU camp. The soul of the party is considered "sore" in the black-red coalition; the Chancellor is as unpopular as a head of government has rarely been before. And so the former chancellor electoral association worries whether Friedrich Merz is the right person to stop the decline of his people's party (more here).
The heated debate will continue, including today. What we are looking for: a strategy. The CDU presidium will meet for an extraordinary meeting on Sunday and Monday; the prime ministers and state leaders expect answers.
From Merz's point of view, the dinner speaker for Sunday evening was cleverly chosen: former Federal President Joachim Gauck recently warned against the Chancellor's resignation in a top-level discussion with SPIEGEL (more here). And apparently Gauck can explain Merz better than Merz himself: "The man doesn't want to harm the country, but wants to serve and benefit the country," said Gauck. The question is whether everyone in the CDU sees it that way.
When it comes to taxes, the coalition has so many construction sites that I wonder how Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) plans to pass a resilient budget. The Union and the SPD are fighting over details of the income tax reform for 2027. The plans for a new sugar and plastic tax are causing trouble (more here). The Bundestag has not yet approved the future level of tobacco tax. And the coalition may soon face the next tax debate.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Federal Constitutional Court will negotiate inheritance tax and also whether business assets should continue to be spared. This question makes medium-sized companies nervous (more here).
However, there are a number of young heiresses who are calling for community spirit. Paula Schwarz, for example, scion of a pharmaceutical dynasty, spoke out in favor of a rather adventurous inheritance tax rate of 100 percent.
Her grandfather founded the drug manufacturer Schwarz Pharma after the Second World War. Then her father held shares and sat on the supervisory board. After the Belgian group UCB bought the company for 4.4 billion euros in 2006, the family became one of the super-rich. She moved into a villa with 36 rooms, a pool, her own cinema and servants. On the Internet, Paula Schwarz once called it a âmoney prison with no rights.â
Young people aged 11 to 20 used online voting to decide which phrases were trending. Why is this exciting, even if you are too old to vote yourself? Because youth words show what concerns Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Langenscheidt puts it this way: âThey are language culture. And a bit of rebellion.â
This year the words âCrashoutâ, âPeakâ and âRagebaitâ were available. If you're over 30 or feel unsure how to use the 2026 winning youth word without coming across as cringe (2021 winning word), then just say "Das Crazy" (2025 winning word). That always works. Even if you are speechless.
Or, to be on the safe side, read here: These are the top three for the youth word of the year
...is the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Just hours after its former judge Navi Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday, the US imposed sweeping sanctions on the ICC. The US State Department said it would prohibit transactions with the court, restrict resources and restrict its ability to act. The European allies can once again feel snubbed. American President Donald Trump had insulted the court several times. There had previously been US sanctions against individual employees and accusers, but the measures now threatened are much stricter. The ICC has already announced that it will continue its work âin all our proceedings, investigations and prosecutions.â Undaunted. That's why he's also: a winner.
Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Canada and Japan criticize US sanctions against criminal courts
