News: SPD celebrities against red-green-red, breakdowns in the finance ministry, youth protests

In Berlin, the three parties in the ongoing coalition negotiations are determined to try to work together against all odds. But the planned coalition under leftist Elif Eralp with the Greens and SPD is not yet dry. And as long as nothing is signed, the alliance may still be prevented.

This is apparently what a growing number of high-profile social democrats think, who reject an alliance with a Berlin left that does not clearly distance itself from anti-Semites, terror sympathizers and organized crime (more on this here).

SPD celebrities such as Karl Lauterbach, Sigmar Gabriel, Christine Lambrecht and Nancy Faeser come together in the “Not at any price” initiative. Boris Pistorius, the country's most popular politician, has also been there since the weekend. The initiative has already collected 1,800 signatures, report my colleagues Felix Dachsel and Andreas Niesmann as well as my colleague Anna Reimann. However, such an appeal is not binding: the Berlin SPD regional association decides independently on a coalition.

It looks like both the Berlin SPD and the Berlin Greens have already largely committed themselves to an alliance with the left. In any case, a meeting to which the CDU election loser Stefan Evers invited the Greens and the SPD had no tangible result. In a conversation with my colleague Maria Fiedler and my colleague Hannes Schrader (the whole interview here), Evers remains open to taking over the reins of government: "Everything is possible in Berlin."

Anyone who does a lot sometimes makes mistakes. But the number of mistakes made by the Federal Ministry of Finance under Lars Klingbeil is quite remarkable. My colleagues David Böcking and Gerald Traufetter report on what can happen if you rush to impose new taxes on everything possible: alcohol, tobacco, plastic, sugar - something can go wrong.

Sometimes the sugar tax accidentally resulted in 690 thousand euros in additional revenue from 690 million in a template, sometimes the tobacco tax was increased immediately instead of only on January 1st as agreed, but e-cigarettes were suddenly supposed to be tax-free until the turn of the year. And as early as 2025, silver coins worth 1.4 million euros had to be melted down because the coins were worth more than the minted face value due to the increased price of silver.

"Every further mistake by the minister," write David and Gerald, "serves his critics as confirmation of a suspicion that has accompanied Klingbeil since the beginning of his term in office: he lacks interest in the difficult subject." He may also simply lack time: Klingbeil is also Vice Chancellor and, after Bärbel Bas's resignation, is currently the sole SPD leader. And he also has a toddler at home.

Today the German Bundestag is debating the demands of the Gen Z protest movement in a current hour. It might not just be helpful for MPs to let the young people who are taking to the streets in half of Europe these days have their say. Our correspondents in France, Italy and Spain asked demonstrators.

The young people they spoke to suffer from poorly equipped schools, unsuccessful job searches after graduation, barely affordable rents and rising costs of living. The focus of their protest may differ, but they agree on one thing: they find it wrong when established politics focuses on violent incidents at the demonstrations and ignores their concerns. The next Gen Z protest in this country is planned in two weeks. Older people are also expressly welcome.

The full story here: Why are you so angry?

... is Ilse Aigner. The CSU politician and President of the Bavarian state parliament is receiving a lot of public support for her candidacy for the office of the country's first female federal president - from all political camps. In the last few days there have been so many prominent voices from the CDU that Friedrich Merz can no longer do anything other than nominate her as a candidate if he doesn't want to make a fool of himself. On the other hand: Merz is like Berlin. Everything is possible with him too.

More background here: Merz's search for a female federal president is slipping away