On the day before the last regular session of the Bundestag in this electoral period, there is a lot on the agenda: Climate protection – and Angela Merkel’s probably last government declaration.
Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) is holding her presumably last government declaration in her almost 16-year term in office today.
Before the EU summit of the 27 heads of state and government, which begins in Brussels in the afternoon, she wants to inform MEPs about the issues and to mark her course for the meeting.
After a long period of abstinence, there will be a premiere in the Bundestag for the CDU leader and Union chancellor candidate Armin Laschet. In the debate on Merkel’s government declaration, he wants to give his first speech in parliament for a good 23 years. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister will speak on behalf of the Union as a member of the Federal Council. Laschet was a member of the Bundestag from 1994 to 1998; he last spoke in plenary on April 23, 1998.
In addition, the Bundestag is advising on the final report of the committee of inquiry into the terrorist attack on the Berlin Christmas market. Around 50 people who experienced the worst Islamist attack on German soil themselves or who lost relatives in the process will follow the debate as visitors in the plenary hall. The members of the committee agreed that the authorities did not take proper care of those affected after the attack. “That was shameful and out of the question in the first few days,” said the CSU MP Volker Ullrich. There was no contact person for the relatives, “they didn’t know who to turn to.”
He could also understand that the relatives were dissatisfied, that the committee could not explain how the assassin Anis Amri managed to escape from Berlin and who might have helped him, he added. The question of how Amri got the murder weapon also remained open.
The rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia shot a Polish truck driver with a pistol on December 19, 2016. He then raced across the Christmas market in his vehicle, killing another eleven people and injuring dozens. Then the supporter of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) managed to escape to Italy, where he was shot by the police during a check.
The Bundestag is also due to pass a number of laws for the grand coalition on Thursday, including those on climate protection and better protection for insects.
The Association of Cities criticized that the new climate protection law alone is not enough to achieve climate neutrality by 2045. “That is why the immediate climate protection program must be sharpened and significantly expanded by the new federal government,” said the President of the German Association of Cities, Burkhard Jung, the newspapers of the Funke media group. The cities would have to tackle “a lot of additional climate protection measures”. “The municipalities cannot do this alone, but only with the help of the federal and state governments,” said the Mayor of Leipzig. Specifically, he called for the rapid expansion of renewable energies and more funding for energy-efficient building renovation.
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