Cities warn of organized irresponsibility in civil defense
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Local authorities have criticized the state of national civil defense, warning that a lack of basic preparations for hybrid attacks has turned emergency planning into a matter of geography. Survival in a crisis, critics suggest, currently depends on which municipality a citizen happens to inhabit.
The warnings arrived as the country marked Unity Day, an anniversary that continues to be celebrated with more introspection than festivities. Thirty-six years after the fall of the Wall, the conversation remains fixed on a persistent internal divide and a political culture in the East that some activists suggest offers a preview of the national future.
National cohesion has not been helped by the diaries of poet Wolf Biermann, whoseล่าสุด reflections on a disappointing state of the nation have added to the day's somber tone. Elsewhere, the Bundeswehr has been deployed to secure Latvian airspace during its elections to deter interference from the east.