Gregor Peter Schmitz on the current star – and the Green crisis

Dear reader,

Last week I was on a train from Berlin to Hamburg that was more than 90 minutes late. An apparently melancholy cow ran in front of a locomotive, which made everything a mess. Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck was also on this train. Both are not very unusual, neither the train delay nor the fact that the green Habeck is driving the train, even if his security officials don’t like it that much. And yet I caught myself thinking: No matter what Habeck is currently tackling, even if it’s just the trip to the Hanseatic city, somehow it just doesn’t work out. When Habeck hurried out of his compartment in Hamburg, he kept his eyes straight ahead, even when people filmed him with their cell phones. Nothing was reminiscent of earlier impressions of the curly head taking a bath in crowds to “Robert” calls. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the people on the train had loudly blamed him for the delay.

Almost at the same time, the Green Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was surprised by the EU asylum compromise on a trip to South America and immediately found herself in the greatest need for explanations within the party. For a long time, the Greens seemed almost like a bourgeois anchor of stability in the divided traffic light coalition. But now they are not only disintegrating in their own ranks, the voters could also run away from them. What does that do to them and to the federal government? Our capital team around Veit Medick and Jan Rosenkranz reports on a party that absolutely does not want to be a therapy case, but still needs therapy sessions.

New star research on Tesla

The term “Putin understander” is usually meant as a reproach – against those people who don’t really understand anything. Nevertheless, Fiona Hill must definitely be described as a Putin understander, because the woman knows her stuff: she met the Russian president, she studied him for years, she shaped US Russia policy as an adviser in the White House. That’s why it’s all the more disturbing when Hill states three points very openly. First, Western intelligence services know far too little about the thoughts of the Russian president. Second: Putin’s paranoia has apparently increased rapidly as a result of Corona. Third: We can only rely on the USA to a limited extent for a mediation solution. Donald Trump would probably be willing to sacrifice Ukraine – and Joe Biden definitely doesn’t want to involve his country in a new long conflict before the presidential election. You can read a sobering but insightful conversation with Fiona Hill, Dagmar Seeland and Marc Goergen in the current issue star.

In March of this year, Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke wrote a letter to Tesla boss Elon Musk. It reads like a pleading that the multi-billionaire should not lose interest in Brandenburg. “Dear Mr. Musk,” begins the letter, in which the SPD politician emphasizes his “gratitude” for the e-car factory that Musk opened in Grünheide, east of Berlin, and where 10,000 people already work. However, the expansion plans have been stalled for a few months. Also because Musk had built his plant in one of the driest regions of Germany and the local supplier warned: There was simply no water for the planned expansion stages. But Woidke promised Musk that he and his cabinet were “very committed” to “solving problems for you before the summer.” Research by Manka Heise, Tina Kaiser, Kristina Ratsch and Christian Esser for the star reveal the unorthodox methods with which Woidke and his government apparently tried to organize water for the car manufacturer and other industrial settlements. Politicians in Brandenburg may have overturned the State Environment Agency for this. The drinking water supply for the local population is in danger – and the Tesla file is enriched by a worrying chapter. More will surely follow.