It didn’t even last a year: the first coalition of the SPD and BSW is in Brandenburg broken. It was an experiment from the start. After the BSW finance minister left the parliamentary group Robert Crumbach as well as Jouleen Gruhn and André von Ossowski, it failed. The coalition of BSW and SPD has governed since December 2024 with a majority of just two votes – this majority has now been lost. SPD Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke declared the cooperation to be over and announced that he would initially continue to govern with a minority government. He also quit Exploratory talks with the CDU to. What the coalition’s failure says about the state of the BSW and what consequences it could have for other federal states is explained Lisa Caspari at What now?.
Coming to Paris today the western supporters Ukraine together to discuss the security of a possible ceasefire to advise. For the first time since March 2025, all 35 members of the so-called Coalition of the Willing will meet in person. Among those taking part are US special envoy Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). According to a draft of the joint final declaration, support for the Ukraine become legally binding in the future. A ZEIT correspondent explains what it could look like in concrete terms and what it has to do with Greenland Matthias Krupa in the podcast.
Also in the update: The bar in the Swiss town of Crans-Montana, where 40 people died in a fire on New Year’s Eve, had been there since 2019 no fire safety controls more. This was said by the president of the local council, Nicolas Féraud. At the last inspection, there were no complaints about the insulation material through which the fire had spread.
And otherwise? Rush at a bargain price
Moderation and production: Pia Rauschenberger
Editor: Ole Pflueger
Cooperation: Maximilian Renzikowski
You can find all episodes of our podcast here. Questions, criticism, suggestions? You can reach us at wasjetzt@zeit.de.
