3 hours ago
Bundestag delay - snap analysis
Kate Connolly
in Berlin
The Bundestag debate has been delayed for half an hour on request of the CDU, thought to be to do with misgivings within the party over the debate, not least due to large numbers of protesters outside the CDU headquarters in Berlin.
People protest in front of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party headquarters last night. Photograph: Christian Mang/Reuters
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Political deadlock comes after Merkel's intervention - analysis
Kate Connolly
in Berlin
The CDU’s parliamentary secretary Thorsten Frei requested the interruption to the plenary session this morning to enable a meeting of the Union faction which was supposed to take half an hour.
Well over an hour since that break was called, we are hearing that the Union is negotiating behind the scenes with both the SPD and the Greens about the possibility of getting a majority without the AfD, by amending the law.
We understand the Greens and SPD have no intention of supporting the law – damaged goods, you might call it. Even if it is amended, there is no way they could give it their backing.
Merz is reported to have told his CDU/CSU MPs this morning:
“We have to weather this storm,” and said the members had to prepare themselves for tough times.
According to some in the Union parliamentary faction, many of the dissenters belonged to Angela Merkel’s ‘camp’.
Were they swayed, or at least felt supported in their reluctance to back the law by Merkel’s public pronouncement yesterday in which she strongly criticised Merz for his U-turn on cooperating with the AfD?
Mood shift in the Bundestag with majority vote looking 'unlikely'
Kate Connolly
Trickling out of the corridors of the Bundestag is the news that the mood has decidedly changed regarding the so-called influx limitation law that Friedrich Merz was hoping to get through the Bundestag.
A majority vote is looking unlikely largely due to the fact that the liberal FDP want to have the vote postponed and to have it returned to where it originated – the interior committee.
The SPD is likely to agree to postpone the vote, as are the Greens.
Several dissenters, not only in the CDU/CSU but among the FDP have raised their heads to object to the law’s progress. The FDP’s parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr has signalled that he doesn’t want to have a final vote on the law until 11 February, at the next meeting of the Bundestag, and 12 days ahead of the general election.
German lawmakers feeling pressure from the electorate - snap analysis
Kate Connolly
in Berlin
If the debate fails today, and it might, this will probably be put down to do with the huge pressure that the MPs are feeling from the electorate, including the protests last night.
There’s as yet no poll reflecting the public’s reaction to the events on Wednesday. They will be interesting to see.
Party groups in meetings as they try to agree on what's next
The person speaking to the visitors in the public gallery has just given us the latest update, also for the press (thank you!), saying that essentially everyone is in various meetings right now and it may take a while before they come back.
“We will not move forward until the parliamentary groups have clarity as to which proposals are going to be brought forward today... or whether there is going to be further discussion in the Bundestag committees,” she said.
She added that she was “internally preparing” that this could take a while to resolve and end up with a late finish.
Jakub Krupa
It is highly commendable that on the exact fifth anniversary of Brexit, the German parliament has decided to commemorate it with a session that has the feel of the British parliament during the Brexit years.
Constant interruptions, parliamentary groups meeting behind the scenes to talk about what to do with immigration, and a lot of time you’re just waiting for things to happen.
And there are now even fewer lawmakers in the chamber than before.
Thank you for your patience, visitors to Bundestag told
Jakub Krupa
In a kind update to visitors to the Bundestag’s public gallery, a voice in the chamber has just said that they are obviously very welcome, but may need to be patient for a bit longer.
Two parliamentary groups are now in faction meetings discussing the rest of the day, she said.
But she reassured the visitors that she’s very happy they are there.
And so am I, with all of you staying with Europe live!
Frantic behind the scenes talks in Bundestag
German media are reporting a number of frantic meetings behind the scenes, with CDU/CSU leader, and potential future chancellor, Friedrich Merz, reportedly meeting with the SPD and the Greens.
Elsewhere, the liberal FDP party leader, Christian Lindner, is suggesting sending the draft back to committee to avoid having a showdown today and delay the crunch vote until mid-February.
This may take a while, but shows how seriously so many in the Bundestag take the integrity of the “firewall” as they desperately want to avoid passing a draft law with the votes of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
Bundestag delays continue
In case you’re wondering: yes, they’re still not back at the Bundestag.
Most lawmakers are not even in the chamber, but some are catching up on phone calls and social media to kill some time.
I will bring you the latest when the Sitzungsunterbrechung is over.
We can't and won't sell Greenland, Danish foreign minister insists
Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen has just been speaking to the country’s public broadcaster, DR, and offered his reaction to Marco Rubio’s words on Greenland overnight.
He said that “the substance” of the interview was that the US was ready to talk about its demands, but insisted Greenland was not for sale and its future would have to be decided by Greenlanders (and they don’t seem too keen.)
The minister said that under domestic and international law, Denmark could not sell Greenland even if it wanted to.
“In 1917, we sold the West Indies without asking the people there. We cannot do that in a modern society, and we will not,” he is quoted saying.
Denmark sold the West Indies to the US, which renamed it as the US Virgin Islands, for $25m (equivalent to just over $600m in 2024 terms if the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’s calculator is to be trusted.)
I mentioned Brexit earlier (sorry!).
The German economic daily Handesblatt is not mincing its words in discussing UK public attitudes to Brexit five years on.
After quoting the legendary British pollster, John Curtice, as saying that most Britons regret the decision but do not necessarily want to reverse it, the paper said in its morning newsletter:
“It is a contradiction that can probably only be understood in a country where having a tap with cold water and another with boiling hot water is considered the same as having running hot water.”
Ouch.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz will be in London on Sunday, before Keir Starmer goes across the Channel on Monday to enjoy a “working dinner” with EU leaders as part of their informal retreat at the Palais d’Egmont in Brussels.
So, in the meantime, elsewhere in Europe…
Norwegian police said on Friday they had arrested a Norwegian ship with an all-Russian crew on suspicion of involvement in causing damage to a fibre optic cable in the Baltic Sea, Reuters reports.
The arrest took place at the request of Latvian authorities, the police in the northern Norwegian city of Tromsoe said.
“It is suspected that the ship has been involved in serious damage to a fibre cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden,” the police said in a statement.
The Norwegian-owned and flagged vessel, named as Silver Dania, had been sailing from St. Petersburg in the Baltic Sea to Murmansk in the Russian Arctic, police said.
