Merkel’s party suffers in regional votes as Greens seize momentum
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel due to step aside after September’s general election, her Christian Democratic Union slumped to its worst results ever in two regional ballots on Sunday, as voters vented their frustration over the government’s handling of the pandemic and the slow pace of vaccinations.
The Greens were the big winners of the night, solidifying their decade-long hold on power in BadenWuerttemberg with a third straight victory in the western state. They also performed solidly in neighboring Rhineland-Palatinate, where they govern with the Social Democrats — who remained the strongest party — and the liberal Free Democrats.
The two elections, held under strict hygiene and distancing rules, gave voters a first opportunity to express their discontent at the ballot box over missteps in Merkel’s pandemic strategy. And the results suggest that the CDU’s new leader, Armin Laschet, has a major problem: Although they’re still the strongest force nationally, support for Merkel’s bloc is dwindling and the Greens have the wind at their backs.
An alliance between the conservatives and the Greens remains the most likely outcome of September’s vote. But Sunday’s results raise the prospect of an alternative outcome: The environmentalist party — which has only governed
at the federal level once before — could instead lead a coalition that includes the SPD, the FDP or even the far-left Die Linke party.
“This success will be a
tail wind for the federal elections,” Greens coleader Robert Habeck said Sunday. The results show that the party, which is polling at around 20% on a national basis compared with Merkel’s CDU/CSU on just over 30%, will have “various options” available after the Sept. 26 national vote, he added.
“Public trust in politics has eroded,” Habeck said. “The reason for this is the government’s mismanagement of the pandemic and, above all, the corruption scandals” involving parliamentarians from Merkel’s bloc.
German voters initially responded positively to the ruling coalition’s management of the coronavirus outbreak. But the stuttering pace of the vaccine rollout, irritation with lockdown restrictions in place since late last year and a widening scandal over claims that some conservative lawmakers profited from the pandemic have all taken a toll.
Laschet - who will hold a news conference Monday in Berlin to address the election results - wants to run to replace Merkel after September but is hampered by his relative unpopularity.
His main rival for the conservative nomination, Bavarian Premier Markus Soeder who heads the smaller, CSU party based in the southern state, is one of the country’s most popular politicians. While the CDU is the dominant partner and typically provides the bloc’s candidate, Soeder’s bid could be bolstered by the CDU’s poor election results.
Laschet still probably will secure the nomination on balance, according to Berenberg chief economist Holger Schmieding.
“Laschet’s position has been weakened, but it has not been critically weakened,” Schmieding said Sunday by telephone. “The losses for the CDU are not unexpected, and Laschet is probably not to be blamed for the result,” he added.
The most stunning global event this month was the historic meeting of Pope Francis with Shiite Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in a small, bare room in the holy city of Najaf, Iraq.
I say that not just because of the pope’s astonishing bravery in attempting to protect the remnants of Iraq’s ancient Christian sects, whose numbers have dwindled from around 1.5 million to 250,000, under attacks from ISIS and other violent Islamist extremists since the 2003 U.S. invasion. At age 84, in the time of COVID-19, the pope’s journey to Iraq was not for the faint-hearted.
Nor do I say it only because the reclusive, ailing 94-year-old Sistani, perhaps the most revered Shiite cleric in the world, stood to greet the pope and joined him in condemning extremism.
No, this trip symbolized something much more significant, at a time when the world is convulsed by xenophobic nationalism, ugly strains of populism and deep cracks within democratic political systems. It was a desperate last plea by global religious moderates for justice and peace.
Both these religious leaders have promoted the rights of oppressed religious and ethnic groups and social justice for poor people, along with democratic political rule. But they have been challenged by hard-liners within their own religion and sects and by populist, authoritarian politicians.
Their joint appearance was a poignant plea — perhaps a last stand — for values that are under increasing global threat.
I have walked the narrow alley in Najaf off which Sistani lives. There is no question that he, like the pope, chooses to live humbly, avoiding any trappings of religious power. And don’t be fooled by the widely distributed photo of the two men in which the blackclad cleric looked wraith-like — he still wields immense religious power.
While Shiites make up only around 15 percent of all Muslims, the vast majority of whom are Sunnis, Iran and Iraq are predominantly Shiite.
And Sistani is the preeminent Shiite ayatollah, leader of a school of religious thought that opposes direct involvement of clerics in political leadership. Thus he opposes the rule by clerics practiced in Shiite Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution — and has endorsed constitutional elections in Iraq.
I was in Iraq in 2005 when the first national elections were held when posters all over Baghdad featured photos of the ayatollah telling Iraqis, especially his Shiite
followers, to go to the polls. But unlike, say, the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq, he supported subsequent elections. He has also supported youthful Iraqi demonstrators protesting corruption in government, including within Shiite political parties.
And Sistani, along with his religious establishment in Najaf, urged his followers to fight ISIS and protect Christians from persecution. He has also urged Shiite militiamen who fought ISIS to join the government or return home.
So when Sistani reaffirmed the right of Iraq’s “Christian citizens to live like all other Iraqis in safety and with their full constitutional rights” this was not just pablum. Similarly, when Francis urged Iraqis — after years of sec
tarian war — to show that “fraternity is more durable than fratricide,” his plea was backed up by personal risk.
A former Jesuit, Francis has campaigned all over the world for the poor and the marginalized, and even once washed the feet of Muslim asylum seekers. He has criticized the growth of nationalist populism in Europe and warned that it could lead to a new Hitler.
And he called former President Donald Trump “not Christian” for his anti-migrant rhetoric.
The pope, too, has been criticized by religious conservatives. And his campaign to convince the dwindling Iraqi Christian community to remain is probably too late.
I went to Christmas services in 2004, complete with a Santa
Claus and Christmas carols, at one of several Baghdad churches that was later blown up. And, in recent years, I visited Christian refugees in the Kurdish capital Erbil, who fled to that moretolerant region from Baghdad and the Nineveh plains, fleeing violence and ISIS massacres. Although sustained by charity, many feel they have no future in the country.
“Do we expect Christians to stay in the Middle East, especially Syria and Iraq?” the Chaldean Catholic then-Bishop (now Archbishop) Bashar Matti Warda asked me rhetorically, in Erbil in 2016. “That is a very difficult question. They have good reason to leave.”
True, the current Iraqi government is trying very hard to rein in violent militias, mostly sponsored by Iran, that still frighten Christians. But the clerics’ joint denunciation of religious fanaticism may not convince.
And yet, the sight of these two world-famous clerics endorsing pluralism is still immensely moving — and, also, a warning. When Sistani dies, Iran will try to exert more influence over Iraqi Shiites. And Pope Francis’ Vatican campaign for the poor may or may not outlast his papacy after he dies.
They have set down the markers and tried their best in Najaf. Now it’s up to us.
There is Mediterranean life beyond hummus and falafel — and a new South Beach café is ready to showcase it.
Omer Horev (founder of Pura Vida Miami) and Sam Gorenstein (My Ceviche) have just opened Abba Telavivian Kitchen in Miami Beach’s South of Fifth neighborhood.
The opening is a bit of a homecoming for the hospitality entrepreneurs.
“We feel like we’re coming full circle, opening a restaurant that reflects what we like to eat at home in a neighborhood that feels like home to both of us ,” said Horev, who left Israel for Miami 15 years ago and turned Pura Vida Miami into a lifestyle brand. “We welcome our neighbors to feel like Abba is their home as well.”
Gorenstein, who opened his first My Ceviche from a walk-up window at Washington Avenue and Second Street, grew up eating the Syrian dishes of his grandparents and is eager to share his favorites: “This is what I cook at home for my family and friends.”
The new cafe will seat around 50 diners inside and outside on a terrace. At the moment it’s serving breakfast and lunch only, but a dinner menu will be added in the future.
Abba prides itself on blending the flavors of the Middle East, North Africa, Syria, Europe and even Latin America. For breakfast, grab homemade pastries — za’atar-lemon croissants, tahini walnut banana bread,
an Israeli puff pastry called a bureka with all sorts of fillings. If you’re hungrier, consider an egg dish like shakshuka (poached eggs, tomato pepper sauce, Aleppo pepper olive oil and herbs). Or pretend you’re in Tel Aviv and order the TLV Breakfast with arak citrus cured salmon, two eggs, labneh, cured olives, shuk salad, hummus, pickled onions and a toasted Jerusalem bagel. (Don’t let the shape fool you — they’re longer and skinnier than American bagels).
Expect the sorts of lunch items you’d find in a Tel Aviv café with the accent on fresh vegetables and many fish options. There are salads galore: Shuk salad with tomato, cucumber, onion, sumac and herbs; a classic Fattoush; an Israeli Kale “Caesar” with shredded kale and romaine lettuce, crumbled feta, pistachios, radish, crunchy pita and green tahini; and Sabich, which involves fire-roasted
eggplant with shuk salad, hard-boiled egg, radish, sumac and tahini dressing.
You’ll also find falafel and lamb kofta-stuffed pitas and open face Jerusalem bagels with avocado, egg and feta cheese as well as hummus, arugula, tomato, and tahini.
Entrees include Sumac Chicken Shashlik, fire-roasted whole branzino and a pan-roasted catch of the day. The beer and wine list includes Israeli wine. A sunset menu after 4 p.m. includes a limited selection of snacks, plus beer and wine.
ABBA TELEVIVIAN KITCHEN
Address: 864 Commerce St., Miami Beach
Hours: 8 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. Breakfast 8-11:30 a.m.; lunch 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; sunset hour 4-7 p.m. ; ww.abbatlv.com
The Heat has been one of the NBA’s best fourthquarter teams recently, and that trend continued in Orlando.
The Heat (21-18) began the fourth quarter in a four-point hole and ended it with a 102-97 victory over the Orlando Magic on Sunday night at Amway Center. Miami has won four straight and 10 of its last 11 games.
The Heat has won the fourth quarter in seven of its past eight games, and has outscored opponents by a combined margin of 28 points in the fourth quarter during that stretch.
The Heat’s decisive run Sunday began with about four minutes to play. Trailing by two points with 4:28 left, Miami closed the game on a 12-5 run and outscored Orlando 29-20 in the final period.
The Magic still had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds. But with the Heat ahead by three, Terrence Ross missed a three-pointer with 17.1 seconds left and Dwayne Bacon then missed another three with 11.3 seconds remaining.
Heat star Jimmy Butler then stole a pass and made an easy transition layup on the other end to seal the victory.
Butler led the Heat with 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting from the field and 9-of-10 shooting from the foul line, seven rebounds, nine assists and five steals in 37 minutes.
The struggling Magic, which has lost eight straight, was without four of its top six scorers. Orlando was without Cole Anthony (rib), James Ennis III (calf), Evan Fournier (groin), Markelle Fultz (knee), Aaron Gordon (ankle) and Jonathan Isaac (knee) on Sunday.
All-Star center Nikola Vucevic kept the shorthanded Magic in the game, though, with 38 points on 6-of-13 shooting on threes, 10 rebounds
The Heat used another big fourth quarter to rally past the Magic in Orlando, winning its fourth game in a row behind Jimmy Butler’s 29 points.
and six assists. Vucevic recorded 17 points on 5-of-7 shooting on threes in the third quarter.
Magic guard Terrence Ross also contributed a season-high 31 points on 8-of-13 shooting on threes.
Vucevic and Ross combined to shoot 14 of 26 from three-point range. The rest of the Magic’s roster shot 2 of 14 from deep.
The Heat took advantage of the Magic’s sloppy play. Miami scored 26 points off Orlando’s 23 turnovers.
The Heat now returns home for a matchup against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday night. Five of Miami’s next six games will be at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Here are four takeaways from the Heat’s win over the Magic:
The Heat continues to take advantage of a soft segment of its schedule: Miami has not played a winning team in two weeks, and the Heat played its sixth straight game against a sub-.500 team Sunday. With the win in Orlando, the Heat improved to 5-1 during this stretch.
The Heat has earned wins over the Atlanta Hawks, New Orleans Pelicans, Magic (twice) and Chicago Bulls during this span. Those four opponents entered Sunday with a combined record of 63-87 (.420 winning percentage).
The injury-depleted Magic has struggled this season. Along with its current eight-game losing streak, Orlando also owns the secondworst record in the Eastern Conference.
The Heat has taken care of business against inferior opponents all season, with a 15-7 record against sub-.500 teams and a 5-10 record against teams above .500.
The good news for Miami is its next four games come against squads currently with a losing record — the Cavaliers, Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers
(twice).
Tyler Herro appeared on the Heat’s injury report less than two hours before tip-off Sunday: The team listed him as questionable because of a right shoulder strain, but he played through the pain against the Magic.
“It just happened in one of these two games. It has been bothering him a little bit,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Sunday before the team determined Herro could play.
Herro, who made his 14th straight appearance off the bench, was effective with 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field and 4-of-8 shooting on threes, eight rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes.
But the Heat was still shorthanded, and second-year center
Chris Silva still played ahead of rookie center Precious Achiuwa in the power rotation: The Heat remained without starting center Bam Adebayo (left knee tendinitis) and reserve guard Avery Bradley (right calf strain) on Sunday. It marked the fourth straight game Adebayo has missed and the 18th straight game Bradley has missed with injuries.
Heat center Meyers Leonard is out for the season after shoulder surgery, but is away from the team indefinitely after recently using an anti-Semitic slur. He is also currently serving a league-issued one-week suspension from team activities.
Without Adebayo, second-year forward KZ Okpala again started in his place alongside Kendrick Nunn, Duncan Robinson, Butler and Kelly Olynyk.
The Heat’s bench rotation Sunday included Goran Dragic, Tyler Herro, Andre Iguodala, Silva and Achiuwa.
Silva entered ahead of Achiuwa for the third straight game, a new wrinkle in the Heat’s rotation. But Silva played just two minutes in the first half because of two quick fouls, and Achiuwa ended up logging five
first-half minutes as Silva watched from the bench because of foul trouble.
Silva did not enter the game again after he exited because of foul trouble in the first quarter.
In Okpala’s fourth straight start, he continues to show intriguing potential on both ends of the court: Okpala finished with eight points on 4-of-8 shooting, four rebounds, two blocks and two steals in 22 minutes.
The second quarter included one of the best plays of Okpala’s young NBA career. He caught a pass in the corner and drove right at Magic forward Dwayne Bacon, using a behind-the-back escape dribble to get past Bacon and then finishing with a double clutch reverse layup.
On the defensive end, his versatility at 6-8 and 215 pounds allowed him to switch almost every Magic action as he guarded every position on the court.
Okpala’s second NBA season has not included a consistent rotation role yet. But he logged 20 or more minutes in a game for just the second time since the start of February.