Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Five German News Stories

 1.  BILD has a story this AM over the Economics/Environmental Minister (Habeck, Green Party).....that he is going to push an agenda to limit oil/natural gas heat.  

The basic wording?  From 2024 on....if you were installing a new heating system into your home.....at least 65-percent of the energy has to be 'renewable'.  Heating systems from the old era (now) would have a 30-year period to operate, before being forced into this situation.

Shocking some folks?  Well...we are two months into 2023, so this would come up real  quick....if it was passed.  

My gut feeling....selling this to the rest of the coalition will be difficult.  The reason driving this?  I suspect if you dig into it.....there's just not enough natural gas around since the war crisis started up....to depend on it as a source.  

2.  Episode with Last Generation activists blocking traffic in Potsdam yesterday.  In the midst of this....fire occurred and emergency vehicles needed access....and were unable to get the 'concreted' activists loose from the road.  

Police were later fairly critical of the activist and the hindering of emergency vehicles.  I would imagine each person has a summons to a court episode, and in this situation....they might be spending a fair amount of time in jail.

3.  I watched a early AM piece off N-TV this morning....concerning the town of Greifswald (up along the northeastern coast of Germany, with 60,000 in population).  Town has 'orders' from the state to accept some refugees.

Mayor didn't want to use the local school gymnasium.  Was going along with a plan to contract out containers for temp-housing. 

It appears that a fair number of town residents are negative about the container-suburb being designed.  It's reached a point now where he (the mayor) requires police protection.  

Just how big this container area was going to be?  500 refugees were figured to be in the estimate. 

4.  There is a discussion going on within the German gov't about limiting advertising of sugar-foods/drinks to kids.

What kind of limits?  The wording is NO TV commercials on the 'bad' foods....aimed at kids 14 or younger....between 6 AM and 11 PM.

What kind of bad foods?  Chocolate, sodas, ceral, chips, etc.  

They are also wording this for YouTube, Twitter and TikTok. 

Outdoor advertising....like near pools or playgrounds?  There's some wording there that would forbid picture advertisements.  

Course, if you had young people of 18 in the background of the commercial....they would not be breaking the law.

Destroying some brand names?  I can think of five chocolate and ice cream companies that would have serious issues.

5.  In Berlin, it appears likely that the new mayor and city council (after the election) will continue to be a coalition between the SPD, Linke Party and Green Party.  Even though the CDU won the election.....they've been unable to interest the Green Party in being their junior party.

What this means?  A fair number of residents/voters are disenchanted with the SPD Party accomplishments so far....the next city election is barely three years away.  Unless something changes or improves....there will be more votes for the CDU in the next election.  

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