100 days of Merz: Foreign policy top, domestic politics wobbles. The situation in the morning

Good morning, dear readers!

100 days young is the black-red coalition and its boss, Chancellor Friedrich Merz, celebrated this with a diplomatic success: a video summit with US President Donald Trump, to which Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj even traveled to Berlin personally. The occasion was the upcoming and excited meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday. And the video count, was fine. In any case, Trump approaches Ukraine and threatens Russia if the Kremlin does not give in.

This is also a success for Merz. The CDU Chancellor proves foreign policy skills: he acts as a determined European and supporter of Ukraine, strengthens relationships with Paris and London and even seems to have a stone in the board at Trump.

Merz harvests applause on the international stage, but he fell on the Federal Republican boards. Opposition, the voters-they all attest black and red a bad intermediate certificate.

Fair, one has to say: 100 days have not been a long time. Until the next planned Bundestag election 2029 remains enough space to tear a lot if you want. But the signs are bad.

The coalition-internal dispute over the constitutional candidate Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf buries the relationship between the Union and the SPD. The weapon embargo for Israel caused unrest in the Union, and there is still Zoff in social policy and electricity tax. And there was still the chancellor’s election in the second attempt. And otherwise the tone between the coalition parties becomes rougher.

This is reflected in the mood of the citizens. According to the current “trend barometer” from RTL/NTV, 67 percent of the respondents are dissatisfied with Merz’s work – three percentage points more than a week earlier. A Civey survey published on Wednesday shows: 39 percent of Germans evaluate black-red worse than the traffic lights. Ouch.

And as if that weren’t enough, the FDP follows a lot. Yes, of all people. Their boss Christian Dürr criticized the lack of a change of policy in the “Rheinische Post” and accused Merz of “even falling behind Angela Merkel”.

The coalition initiated a lot. According to Vice Government Spokesman Steffen Meyer, 118 projects were launched in the first 100 days-an average of 1.18 a day. “Growth booster”, household, pension package, “Bauturbo”, migration turn. Even before the Chancellor’s election, the debt brake was softened. However, the internal bickering is stuck with the voters (as with the traffic lights) – and a chancellor in diplomatic mission.

Has Merz focused too much on foreign policy?

“Yes, you have the impression,” said political scientist Wolfgang Schroeder from the University of Kassel of the AFP news agency. “The chancellor’s attitude is problematic: ‘I think very big, I think in long lines, I think in large pictures and the small print loosen others’.” But the conflicts were “in the small print: when choosing a judge, when it comes to citizens’ money, when dealing with the Ukrainians”.

Merz has already admitted that not everything went smoothly. “We have to readjust something, and we do that too,” he promised. And with that he has to hurry up. Because in the coming months, the Union and SPD will face even greater challenges: they urgently need money. In financial planning there is a gap of around 172 billion euros for 2027 to 2029. In 2027 alone, 34 billion euros had to be saved. The traffic light failed on a fraction of this sum.

And as if that weren’t enough, there are five state elections in 2026-including those in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD is particularly strong. It is not for nothing that CSU boss Söder has already described the black-red coalition as the “last cartridge of democracy”.

What do you mean, dear readers? Does black and red still get the curve? Or does we have an outer from à la traffic light?

You can also hear more to 100 days of black and red in our “6×5-minute talk” podcast:

After over a week of talks in Geneva, a global agreement against plastic waste remains a long way off. Negotiations for a UN plastic agreement go into the officially last round on Thursday, but participants consider failure to fail. On Wednesday, the penultimate day of the trial, the oil -producing states and its allies were irreconcilable to the representatives of the EU, Latin America and environmentalists. Several states and the EU rejected a new template for the agreement.

Around 180 countries actually wanted to complete the contract text today. However, negotiators consider it likely that the talks will last until the early hours of Friday. The planned UN agreement is intended to regulate design, production and disposal of plastic worldwide.

According to participants, oil producers such as the Gulf States, Russia and the United States block progress because they provide the raw materials for plastic. The negotiations in Geneva follow the failed talks in Busan South Korean last December, which were originally supposed to conclude the agreement.

And that would be urgently needed: plastic waste dirty the environment worldwide. Microparticles of the plastic can even be found in the human body. Every year, more than 400 million tons of plastic are created, half of them for disposable products. Less than ten percent of the plastic waste is recycled. According to estimates, plastic production could even triple by 2060.

If you want to get a bit between your teeth quickly, you like to use Fast Food on the way. However, this creates a mountain of packaging waste: in Germany alone, drinks are almost used for drinks every year.

Since January 1, 2023, restaurants, cafes, petrol stations and supermarkets have been obliged to offer reusable containers as alternative. But samples of German environmental aid (DUH) show that not everyone sticks to it. The DUH has therefore sued several fast food chains.

The regional courts in Berlin and Frankfurt have now decided that it must be improved. Among other things, the and the. The judges condemned franchiseists from the North Sea, mayor, Subway and Burger King to introduce or improve a reusable offer in the branches tested. You must provide appropriate packaging for all drinks and dishes that are under the reusable obligation. If the operators do not meet the requirements, according to “taz” they face order funds of up to 250,000 euros.

The Manitu is back – and encounters a high -nerving society. Bully Herbig, Christian Tramitz and Rick Kavanian about “The Cane of the Manitu” and old bleaching faces:

How did you like this morning | Star? Please write it to me: rune.weichert@stern.de

I wish you a good start to Thursday! Warm, you

Transparency note: the star is part of RTL Germany.