Overview
- Mecklenburg-Vorpommern economics minister Wolfgang Blank was seriously injured in a collision on the A20 near Lindholz after a motorway-maintenance truck moved from the hard shoulder into the left lane, with two car occupants airlifted to Klinikum Rostock and the motorway closed at Bad Sülze.
- With the March 22 Rheinland-Pfalz election approaching, new polling shows SPD and CDU essentially level in voter support, with AfD in third place.
- SPD leader and finance minister Lars Klingbeil called for European-level action to capture excessive oil-company profits at the pump and return proceeds to citizens, and he signaled openness to a cost cap for the planned standard private pension product ahead of a March 16 Bundestag hearing.
- A government draft would expand digital investigative powers for the BKA and Bundespolizei, enabling automated data analysis and biometric comparisons with publicly available internet content, a move ministers Alexander Dobrindt and Stefanie Hubig say is aimed at complex terrorism and organized-crime cases; limited biometric checks at BAMF are also envisaged for applicants without valid passports.
- The Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern chose Peter Schabbel to lead its state campaign, and he said the party would back neither SPD’s Manuela Schwesig nor any AfD candidate for head of government.