Next Chancellor, Merkel version 2.0: Focus wrote up a lengthly piece and chatted about who they perceive as the replacement to Merkel in 2021....the Saarlander Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who recently won the state election in Saarland for the CDU. "AKK" is young enough to be around for at least a dozen more years and likely to get a nod toward a cabinet position (maybe Finance Minister, my humble opinion).
Two-home owners: Focus wrote a fine piece on a trend that's been underway for probably over thirty years....Germans who own two houses. There's a minimum of two million Germans in this category. Some have a place near where they work during the week, and they retreat back to the normal home (probably over 3 hours away) for weekends. Some own a vacation residence somewhere. What they point out toward the end is that it affects the apartment rental prices, and affordable housing ratios. Some social enthusiasts think there needs to be added tax on these people to prevent this, but I don't see where this would go.
Panama Papers drawing criticism: ARD wrote up a piece which centers on the Panama Papers.....which are the leaked bank accounts or secret accounts of various Europeans....with money hid in Panama. What they report is that the Green Party at the EU are dumping some criticism that things aren't progressing on information about the leaked papers. One gets the opinion that there are some fairly noted names in the listing and there could be severe legal consequences down the road....if the EU ever completed their investigation.
Press meets the public: ARD did an hour-long show (I watched maybe twelve minutes of it) with their moderator meeting social media commentators. Effort is to reform harsh tone, and probably to introduce Tagesschau news people to a vast landscape of German commentary. I came back to it toward the last three minutes. It seemed to drain the energy out of the moderator (Reschke). The chief thing that I think ARD's moderator got out of this....some people are absolute in their beliefs and anyone thinking that old fashioned dialog can change opinions....have missed the change in society.
Soccer isn't American football: There was a soccer game from this weekend, where the management and public-TV folks tried to have a half-time show (typically something that you don't see in German games). They brought out Helene Fischer and she did a 8-minute show. Fans at the stadium really didn't care for the singer or the half-time show, and the sound level was distorted. Focus wrote up a piece over this and suggests that commercialization in soccer isn't a thing that fans want.
A day late and a dollar short: SPD Party candidate for Chancellor came out and did a big criticism speech against President Trump (trying to hype up his people and use the normal campaign theme of the party). The problem is that Merkel already did the criticism and used the one silver-bullet existing. Then Schulz did his best to criticize Merkel.
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