Note Jens Berger: NachDenkSeiten had already pointed this out in May 2020: âThe state has proven to be one of the biggest fake news producers in the Corona crisisâ â BMI employee leaks document. Classical media at the time dismissed this as âfake newsâ and âcounterfeit propagandaâ. So one can deceive.
Covid-19: Combating strategy and decision-making
Our position
– The phased plan development is progressing in some states and also at the federal level. Focusing solely on the health damage caused by SARS-CoV-2 would certainly be everyone's preference. But it is the responsibility of politics to find a viable and sustainable control strategy in the better compromise between the health effects of a disease, the collateral damage for other health areas, for society and the individual by the prescribed measures, the economic effects and necessary liberty restrictions. – Given the expense of pandemic control compared to other health problems, questions about the proportionality of control measures need to be answered and subjected to whole-of-society, including health economic, assessments. The federal government must establish a process of broad inclusion of professional competencies in the preparation of decisions on risk management. Policy decisions based on risk assessment by individual representatives of a few disciplines are inadequate and have contributed to polarization in the fight against pandemics. – Discussions only with individual scientists from special disciplines are not sufficient to work out prevention and control options in an open-minded way and to weigh their advantages and disadvantages. Too little or no space exists for scientific discourse upstream of decision making. Essential areas of society are not represented. There is a feeling that positions that do not fit with the firmly held viewpoint of the decision-makers are not taken into account, even though they can sharpen the decision-making process and promote the search for the best solution. However, an open discourse with all essential departments is crucial to overcome the crisis. – There is no independent panel of experts to make risk assessments for the federal government or institutes, z.B. Of the SARS-CoV-2 variants, daycare centers/schools. Its task must be to make recommendations to policymakers according to a structured process of risk assessment. Specifically, for the development of stepwise plans, this now means urgently evaluating the contribution of specific areas of life to infections of at-risk individuals and in inpatient settings. Priority here: Kitas, elementary schools and retail. Individual opinions, currently presented by individual experts, do not come close to meeting the requirements of structured risk regulation and are not sufficient to reflect the broad knowledge competence, diversity of opinion and complexity of risk regulation on COVID-19. – In the long term, a national commission is needed, similar to the permanent vaccination commission or the commission for hospital hygiene and infection prevention, to advise the federal government in a structured process and in full awareness of its responsibility to society as a whole on issues of risk assessment and regulation.
Source: Corona Strategy
Comment Jens Berger: This policy paper is a welcome alternative to the destructive demands of the lockdown hawks. Authors include u.A. Klaus Stöhr, Gerd Antes, Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit and Matthias Schrappe; well-known experts who do not have to hide from the Brinkmanns and Meyer-Hermanns.
To this: Experts advocate comprehensive step plans
Ahead of the Corona Summit of the German federal and state governments, scientists led by epidemiologist Klaus Stöhr call for more interdisciplinary exchange. They call for step-by-step plans. New criteria for success in the fight against the pandemic. […] The scientists of the  "Covid Strategy Working GroupÂ" call for an  "elastic, transparent step-by-step planÂ" that would bring Germany  "to the end of the pandemic without constant new discussions of principlesÂ" because the situation moves very dynamically due to the weather, population movements, new virus variants and changing control success. It should tackle pandemic fatigue in the population with a  "positive agendaÂ", he said. As success criteria, the scientists recommend:
– the R-value trend – a risk group-specific incidence – the burden on the health care system and the occupancy of intensive care units
For health and epidemiological evaluation of pandemic levels, the average seven-day reporting rate alone is not suitable, write the experts. They advocate assigning a package of measures to individual areas of life in each stage: from daycare to retail, from public transport to the workplace. Every three to four weeks, they say, the pandemic level reached should be assessed at the state level. If there are changes, such as a change to another level, it should then be clear what will be changed in the measures. Â "Success is geared toward minimizing the health effects.Â" Source: SPIEGEL Sahra Wagenknecht: Left-liberalism of today is left-liberalism
In an interview with Die Welt newspaper, Sahra Wagenknecht, a left-wing politician and former leader of her party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag, commented on the mood in the country and the development of the Die Linke party. In it, she described the current social atmosphere as "emotionally heated" â with a view to the Corona situation â "on both sides". The politically left spectrum also had a share in it. Too often an attitude is taken, according to which dissenters are automatically regarded as bad people. Wagenknecht states: "This is a typical approach of the left-liberal milieu: anyone who is in favor of limiting immigration is a racist. Who criticizes CO² taxes, a climate denier. And anyone who doesn't think closing schools, restaurants and gyms is right, a 'covidiot'." This "spin", which has been around for some time in the migration debate, for example, has now also been applied to the Corona issue. And further: "What is called left-liberalism today should actually be called 'left-illiberalism' because of its pronounced intolerance. (â¦) This left-illiberalism has emerged from the new academic middle class of the big cities, a relatively privileged milieu that today lives largely isolated, a filter bubble in real life." Instead, one must regain the ability to discuss "with decency and respect. Otherwise, the country runs the risk of developing similarly to the U.S. "With this extreme division". To that end, he said, it was important to stop "moralizing debates or deliberately setting them up to put people down". "For many, the crisis is psychological. Financially a disaster. It is legitimate to protest. Many participants in the large demonstrations were not conspiracy ideologues or right-wing extremists, but ordinary citizens whose concerns politicians should take seriously. For example, he said, the Corona era "increased social inequality. Many undesirable developments of the last years uncovered". Also the middle class stands now "still more under pressure", so the left politician further. Your party should be there "especially for people who have to cope with low and medium incomes or low pensions", he says. This would mean not targeting the Green clientele so much in elections. Wagenknecht states: "To compete with the Greens for the relatively wealthy clientele that can afford the expensive apartments in the trendy urban neighborhoods, I would consider neither left-wing nor electorally wise. Of course, there are also well-off academics who choose us because they are socially engaged. But we have to make policy primarily for those who otherwise have no lobby at all. But this also means that our policy must focus on social issues, not language contortions and lifestyle questions. And leftists need to drop the self-righteous attitude that has driven many voters away." Source: RT German
Note Christian Reimann: Please also read Merkel's endless lockdown destroys the young people's perspective on life.
Rentals land in the Caribbean
An opaque company network earns money from thousands of apartments in Germany – tax tricks increase the return on investment. Research by SR and "Correctiv" shows: The rents reach the British Virgin Islands in a roundabout way. (…) Even when they bought the entire housing package, including the houses in Ottweiler, a good three years ago, the investors took advantage of a tax loophole – a so-called share deal. The trick is that you didn't buy the property itself, but shares in it. Share) at the mailbox companies that own the properties. Because this is not a real estate purchase in the original sense, no real estate transfer tax is due. (â¦) The second legal tax trick is to micro-manage rental profits – through mutual credits in the company network. Research by SR with the support of "Reporter.Lu" show: The owner of the residential complex in Ottweiler, Residential Value West 1, received a loan from its Luxembourg parent company, which incidentally is located at the same address. The interest rate is high, more than eight percent. As a result, Residential Value West 1 has to pay high loan installments – and no longer makes rental profits that it would have to pay tax on in Germany. (â¦) Foreign investors benefit from infrastructure in Germany, such as roads leading to their homes. These are financed by taxes, in which the investors hardly participate through their tricks. It is unclear how much tax the German government will miss out on in total. Source: tagesschau
Note of our reader T.W.: Here is an example of valuable investigative public journalism
Danger to life: How the healthcare system puts children's hospitals under pressure
The health care system in this country is subject to strong economic pressure. The abbreviation DRG, Diagnosis Related Groups, stands for the dictates of economic efficiency. Treatments are compensated afterwards. If clinics have too few or no lucrative cases, they get into financial difficulties, slide into insolvency, are closed down. In pediatric and adolescent medicine, the dilemma becomes visible as if under a magnifying glass. 440 children's hospitals existed in 1991. According to the latest figures from the Federal Statistical Office, there were only 348 in 2018. Experts even assume only 300 to 320 full-fledged departments, they count out facilities with less than ten beds. The shrinkage is life-threatening, especially in sparsely populated areas. This is shown by the example of little Wilma, who almost died. Parchim has just 18.000 inhabitants. Where there are few children, there are few illnesses, there are few case rates to be expected. Basic medical care is still needed; emergencies must be able to be treated at any time. Source: Berliner Zeitung Breach of the Constitution? Worse: A mistake
The abandonment of modernity by the pandemic policy 2.0 Whether the lockdown will be continued will not be decided by the standards of constitutional law as things stand. After talk of âproportionalityâ and âreasonablenessâ even in government statements in the fall of 2020, there is now no indication that executive decisions â whatever they may be in the coming weeks and months â could be limited for legal reasons. Above all with the miracle word of the âVorsorgeâ one procured oneself new leg liberty. How did it come to this? And why this is a mistake? (…) Precaution is good â but above all never complete. That is why it is typically not associated with blanket coercion and prohibitions â because the precautionary state would find no end to counteracting mortal dangers once it starts to. Constitutional law has so far reflected this insight by requiring actual bases for precautionary or risk regulations and the associated encroachments on fundamental rights: causality, attribution, responsibility, entered into the experiential memory of the legal system, for example in the case of the environment and counterterrorism. Only in unclear, temporally and factually limited special situations the state was granted to act âon suspicionâ. So it could be represented also at the beginning of the Corona epidemic last spring. But instead of increasing the requirements, for example, for proof of facts and justifications for the effectiveness of measures, quite the opposite is currently expected, that the public should get used to âin-doubt-for-safetyâ justification. The concept of precaution reverses the burden of proof. One should be honest: Freedom that has to prove its harmlessness is abolished. (â¦) However, the policy has completely bound itself to a one-sided (intensive) medical perspective and reformulated it in its own way into a total claim. But such a policy must fail if it keeps its formulas (âEvery dead person is too much!Â) really seriously, or it leads into the total delimitation of the measure state. These are alternatives that do not have much in common with our constitutional order. The Basic Law is indeed a constitution committed to life. Any frivolous talk about the limits on life and health would betray the historical insights on which our state is founded. But there is a categorical difference between the constitutional imperatives not to harm human life and to stand in solidarity with each other in protection â and the hubris of wanting to take a particular death out of the field and sacrificing the open society for it if necessary. It can be argued about, but not silenced. Source: Hinnerk Wissmann in Constitution Blog The constitutional argument has a hard time
It is part of everyday political life that experts are invited to the Bundestag â including constitutional lawyers. But they have a hard time getting through with their arguments when every criticism is put in "contrarian" terms. (â¦) Pluralism and participation can be ensured under such poor discourse conditions mainly through constitutionally protected counterpublics. Therefore the demonstration right is so important straight in Corona times. Public broadcasting, religious communities and scientific organizations are also endowed with special constitutional protection so that they can fulfill the function of counterpublics unmolested by political majorities. They follow other rationalities than the political process. It is not a matter of majority, but above all of enlightenment. They fulfill a complementary condition, based on the division of labor, alongside the political process to ensure that the constitutional order reasonably aggregates and processes the diversity of interests and ideas. Articulation in counter-publics is particularly important in times when administrative courts, at any rate, are hardly able to carry out a substantive review of norms in the summary review of urgent law, and can only do so to a limited extent, when churches are frightened into silence, and when mass media, just like social media, tend to fuel crises out of self-interest under the incentive structures of the attention-oriented society. It remains then "the science. As one of the currently rather few still functioning counter-publics, it must not be treated as either a stirrup holder of political decisions or as lateral thinking. However, this is the alternative that Heribert Hirte's logic would lead to. But also the colleagues in jurisprudence should be told: jurists will fulfill their constitutional mandate from Art. 5 para. 3 GG in any case not justified by silence in the assumption to do thereby a solidarity service in the crisis to the constitutional order. Source: Oliver Lepsius in Legal Tribune Online An ethical question?
The restrictions currently in force must therefore always be justified. However, it is not enough to just say that the falling numbers are deceiving. Then why have the rising numbers never done that? Even a possible risk of infection despite vaccination or even without is not sufficient. Decisive is the overloading of the health care system, as indicated by the legislator. And fortunately that did not happen. Occupancy and case numbers are now declining. Whether now any mutations of the virus can become dangerous, is still unclear. The mere assumption is not sufficient as a justification, especially since in countries such as Great Britain, Ireland or Denmark, the number of cases is nevertheless falling despite the widespread variant. The restrictions should therefore be withdrawn and replaced with a commitment by the government to finally make the healthcare system pandemic-proof. Incidentally, this is also taught by the example of Portugal, which is now being cited as a warning crisis country. But it is not that simple. The virus has here only easier play, since the health sector is still more modestly set up. There must therefore be an outlawing of the neoliberal policy model. On the fetish black zero finally be renounced. Because the specifications for strict budget discipline have only led to radical cuts in vital areas. So is it ethically justifiable if, in the end, fundamental rights are restricted only because politicians continue to refuse to let go of a fatal dogma? Source: TauBlog When oil refineries buy electricity for e-cars
On paper, it's getting serious for German manufacturers who produce fuels for cars, trucks, two-wheelers, tractors or airplanes. Until 2030 they have time to ensure that in Germany renewable energies have a share of 28 percent of total energy consumption in transport. Corresponding legal regulations were decided by the government this week. It is also implementing the EU's second Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). This commits EU countries to at least a 14 percent share of renewables in transport in 2030. (…) For the legislator, it is enough if the fuel company, for example, electrifies its own fleet or buys eco-certificates from the companies that operate e-charging networks. And how nice, the so "produced" e-charging power is even counted three times on the GHG-quota. Minister Schulze defended this by saying that the petroleum industry would thus "indirectly" support the development of a charging infrastructure. For them, the tripling is a "very, very important lever". (…) How the multiple multiple credits affect the real share of renewable energies in the transport energy mix, the ministry did not want to be so specific in a PowerPoint presentation. This would depend on the market development. One likely scenario, House experts said, is that by 2030 the renewable share will be 22 or 20 percent, rather than the targeted 28 percent. That one supervises with a monitoring. Compared to the first drafts of the law, the Ministry of the Environment has significantly increased the GHG quotas. Whereas just weeks ago a rate of 6.5 percent was planned for 2025, it is now eight percent. It's expected to reach ten percent in 2027, and then a steep rise through 14.5 percent in 2029 to the 22 percent projected for 2030. That the GHG quota rises little at first and then virtually "explodes" reflects, according to industry experts, the government's expectation that e-mobility will grow strongly in the late 2020s â and absorb so much of the quota that there won't be much left over for "traditional" biofuels. That is why the quota must increase significantly as early as the first half of the 2020s, demands Elmar Baumann, head of the biofuel association VDB. It considers the multiple credits to be misleading. They faked climate protection "where there is none". The math tricks didn't count toward national or international climate goals. Source: klimareporter Researchers discover location trackers in 450 of 450 Android apps studied
In a new study directed by VPN provider Express VPN, security experts paint a picture of global location monitoring that most would probably not have expected. All 450 smartphone apps examined from Google's Playstore contained location trackers. (â¦) The affected apps come to at least 1.7 billion downloads worldwide. Even in apps that are specifically aimed at a European audience and are thus originally subject to the regulations of the European General Data Protection Regulation DSGVO, the researchers found. This even found trackers like X-Mode, which both Google and Apple had banned for apps distributed through the app stores. In this context, the use of X-mode is not even a marginal phenomenon. In 199 of the apps studied (44 percent), the researchers found one or more elements of the various software development kits (SDK) provided by X-Mode. Source: digital pioneers The Commission shows off its new weapons
Proudly the Commission shows off its new arsenal. Member states must implement recommendations from European Semester to receive funding from recovery fund. This is the road to authoritarian Europe. Last week, the press reported some remarkable facts. The European Commission had made it clear to the Chancellor's Office and the ministries of finance and economics that Germany would have to improve its reform program in order to receive the approximately 24 billion euros it is entitled to from the reconstruction fund. To be able to receive euros. In detail, as reported by the Handelsblatt (25.1.21, S. 8-9) and the FAZ (26.1.21, S. 16), Germany should make reforms to its overly progressive tax system, strengthen the financial sustainability of its pension system, open up regulated professions, and abolish the marital splitting system. This is peculiar. Conditionalities to get the money from the construction fund: Wasn't it about the concrete use of funds, digitization, climate protection, and the rule of law mechanism? Does the German marital splitting system now fall under EU jurisdiction?? Or does it contribute, without us noticing it so far, to the inner-European imbalances that are indeed in need of correction and thus falls within the radius of the macroeconomic monitoring and correction procedures that have long been underpinned with sanctioning possibilities?? Even if this is the case (it is not obvious), what does this have to do with the reconstruction fund?? Let's break down and evaluate the facts below. The Corona crisis poses trade. Inner cities in our region face enormous challenges. At the same time, however, this also opens up new opportunities. That is the conclusion of Heinrich Koch, Chairman of the Regional Committee of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce Osnabrück â Emsland â Grafschaft Bentheim for the Osnabrück region after the virtual meeting on 28. January 2021. Anke Schweda, head of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce's Location Development, Innovation and Environment division, was able to use statistical data to show a significant decline in the number of retail establishments. Benefiting from structural change in times of Corona zzt. Basic centers. Online retailing. As the need of customers for home and stationary shopping in the region continues to be recognized, opportunities for a new beginning for the city centers are also emerging. Against this backdrop, the seven Lower Saxony chambers of commerce and industry are calling for u. A. The establishment of modern and sector-encompassing center development concepts, the realization of so-called Business Improvement Districts (BID) to upgrade difficult locations and, as the pandemic subsides, more legally secure possibilities for Sunday openings. The region mentioned is just one example. In other regions of Germany, presumably similar results have been found.
To this end: Strengthening regional business models and making cities livable
Concept of economic development 4.0 is being tested in Witten, Witzenhausen and Wuppertal Inner cities are increasingly characterized by large department store and fashion chains, numerous vacancies and impersonal shopping districts â often without a regional focus. This is what the project "Rollout economic development 4.0" of the Wuppertal Institute together with actors of the local economy now change in Witten, Witzenhausen and Wuppertal. Repair cafés, regional products, a mobile volunteer advisory service are examples of initiatives and companies that are intended to upgrade cities and create an appreciative understanding and awareness of one's own city. Jana Rasch, a researcher in the Urban Change Research Unit at the Wuppertal Institute, talks in a recent videocast about what lies behind the idea of economic development 4.0, what the project's goals are and provides insights into its work and implementation in the cities. Source: Wuppertal Institute Maas promises Belarusian opposition millions: "The spirit of democracy is out of the bottle"
Speaking at an online solidarity conference for Belarus, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) promised several million euros in support for the opposition in the Eastern European country. On Saturday, the SPD politician described the presidential elections in the Republic of Belarus held in August 2020 as rigged. "The spirit of democracy is out of the bottle â. You can not put it back. In recent months, many people in Belarus have become heroes and heroines: Artists, medical personnel, students, the elderly â and Belarusian women. And especially you, dear Svetlana. Your courage has inspired so many people in Belarus and elsewhere."Maas assured here that Germany and the European Union stood by the peaceful demonstrators, referring to the sanctions imposed on Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and "his regime". In addition, the SPD politician mentioned an "Action Plan Civil Society Belarus" endowed with up to 21 million euros. According to Maas, the money should be used to support students. Independent media to be supported. In addition, the initiative adopted by the federal government could make it easier for persecuted opposition figures to find refuge in Germany. Source: RT German
Comment Christian Reimann: Above all, the German foreign minister reveals that he is operating in the spirit of regime change in Belarus.
How Germany supports coup plotters and terror regimes
When generals coup abroad or police officers crush demonstrators, it is often the case that the leadership was trained in Germany. But so far hardly anyone in Berlin is interested. The news from the Malian capital Bamako was irritating. In August of last summer, a "National Committee for the Salvation of the People" overthrew the incumbent president in the supposed showcase country of the Sahel region. Word spread quickly: the leader of the junta, General Assimi Goita, had attended anti-terrorism training courses in Germany and France, among other places, in earlier years. But the shock lasted only for a short time, because quickly a language regulation was found at least in the EU. EU foreign affairs envoy Josep Borrell announced, "We are not training soldiers to be coup plotters." The leaders of the revolt had been trained mainly in the United States and Russia. But doubts remained. After all, it sounded like: It can not be what must not be. More thoughtful than ever before, politicians are now asking themselves this question. Experts in Berlin: Who are we actually training here?? Source: t-online Germany reports record defense spending
After the fierce dispute over the two-percent target, Germany can announce sharply rising defense spending to NATO. But this is also due to the Corona pandemic â. Could change again soon. Germany has once again reported record defense spending to NATO. According to information from the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the German government transferred an amount of 53.03 billion euros for the current year to the Brussels Alliance headquarters. This represents an increase of 3.2 percent compared with the previous year. For 2020, spending was last estimated at around 51.39 billion euros. Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine
Note from our reader J.A.: That triumphant tone on "defense spending at record levels," cruel. What on earth is supposed to be great about it? Defense spending is at best a necessary evil and at worst has ruined the finances of large countries, but where is the need for so much evil? The population has nothing to gain from a tank or a gun, as opposed to, say, more nurses or more teachers or more housing. The triumph, then, is in having complied with U.S. Pressure for more armament, i.E., in having bowed to the demands of a foreign power. Terrible. And Stoltenberg's justifications for why "governments should spend more on defense, even though health care and overcoming the recession are priorities for so many people right now" are rarely silly: "one [sees] how military capabilities are also helpful in supporting civilian health services". Uh… So soldiers and a completely overpriced military administration, which somehow makeshift compensate for the caput savings policy of the EU states in hospitals, health care and public services, are supposed to be better than with a fraction of the money wasted on armament z. B. In Germany for more nurses. To provide better digital equipment for public health offices? Germany for more nurses. Providing better digital equipment for health departments? Man, man, man, what a twisted logic. Erasmus Foundation: Federal government to subsidize AfD foundation with 70 million euros
In order to understand how this can happen, reference must be made to a directive in the Bundestag according to which every party that makes it into parliament for more than one legislative period in succession is guaranteed the right to receive millions in subsidies to the foundations close to them. Even if it can be assumed that the AfD and its Desiderius Erasmus Foundation were not originally priced into this idea, the German legislature is making little effort to move away from this form of equal treatment – even if it could now benefit a party that in many ways thinks little of equal treatment. The Frankfurt-based educational institution Anne Frank does not spare clear words when it comes to classifying the Erasmus Foundation. The pedagogical director of the educational center, Saba-Nur Cheema, for example, says: âThe Erasmus Foundation provides an intellectual coating to anti-human positions. That makes them âespecially dangerous. The top of the foundation is composed of ârace theorists and conspiracy ideologists, völkische pseudo-scientists and hard-core right-wing extremists from the environment of the Identitarian movement and the Antaios publishing house of Götz Kubitschek. Source: Frankfurter Rundschau âHuman Alma, it is so good to see you! When were you last at school? âBefore Christmasâ
Mid-year parent meeting: âAlma, how are you?? No opening phrase, I am serious. As if Alma had been waiting for this question, tears shoot into her eyes. A pressure discharges that apparently has had no place for a long time. I was not prepared for this. You have to be one hundred percent present now, I say to myself, have to call up complete access to your experience in authentic listening, personal language at eye level. Âi want to go back to school! I can't stand it anymore! … (…) Actually, I had invited Alma and her mother to the mid-year parent-teacher conference. We arranged it for the middle of December. Alma comes from a large, lively family. She has three small siblings, her mother is a housewife and not systemic. But who, if not mothers, are system relevant? Better not to think about it. This is a parent conversation and planned with the following structure: As a mentor, I lead the conversation. My assessor, Alma's German teacher and my colleague, takes minutes. School performance is the issue, that is the default. (â¦) It goes Alma badly and that accept please, you clever woman teacher, I admonish myself. Me, sitting here so terribly grown up, knowing I'm not going to the school board the next morning and reporting that one of my students is developing depression, that she's already showing physical symptoms. Discovery of symptoms in children, due to the mask, ends up in the gauntlet I think of the endangerment report I made to various offices a few weeks ago, after children told me about their symptoms under the mask. A gauntlet I do not dare to run again. I feel helpless. I drive home and play through my dismissal for the umpteenth time. As an educator, I can no longer share the responsibility for this distance nonsense. No pedagogue can do that. Actually. The knowledge of Gerald Hüther and Jesper Juul about successful relationships applied to peacetime and offered apparently only reassuring, clever text modules for concepts and supervisions. We need supervision, immediately, long and urgently! Oh, that is just forbidden. I walk inwardly through my team. I suspect that some of my colleagues are not sad about it. I formulate a letter to them. Of course I do not send it off. Switch off brains and function Source: Jana Franke Frey in 1bis19 WDR removed critical contribution about Laschet
In 2019, a WDR report dealt with a statement made by Armin Laschet, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, on the evacuation of the Hambach Forest. The station deleted the contribution shortly afterwards â because of alleged journalistic shortcomings. But there are doubts about the reason. (â¦) Within the WDR editorship there is displeasure according to information of the âSpiegelâ already for a long time. Âthe reason is that some editors criticize lack of distance between the station and the state government in NRW.