V a t t e n f a l l - Sweden´s other face

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The best example of moral deprivation in Brandenburg politics in the ten years since Reunification was provided during the parliamentary process concerning the so-called "Horno Bill" (Braunkohlengrundlagengesetz, 1997). Towards the end of the legislative process, when it became apparent, that the Standing Committee on the Environment, which was responsible for guiding the Bill through parliament, would recommend to the Landtag that the Bill be rejected, the Leader of the Social Democratic (SPD) parliamentary party, Wolfgang Birthler (now Agriculture and Environment Minister in B randenburg) withdrew those Committee members from the SPD who were against the bill the day before the crucial vote in Committee, and replaced them with "yes-men". Birthler had not wanted to tread this path alone, but when he asked the parliamentary leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), Dr. Peter Wagner, to likewise purge the Standing Committee, Wagner rejected the idea out of hand as a flagrant breech of parliamentary democracy. Among the "yes-men", who took their seats in the Standing Committee half-an-hour before the final vote, was mining leader Ulrich Freese, who visibly enjoyed the spectacle.
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Further evidence of the political climate in Brandenburg is provided by the fact that, although the village of Horno has been listed and protected since 1993, the State body responsible for the preservation of historic buildings and monuments has done absolutely nothing to support the Horno cause during the past seven years. Officials from this body explain in a whisper just why this has happened: it wasn't politically opportune!
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The solution to the problem of the constitutional protection of Sorb settlements from further destruction through brown coal mining was characteristic for the morally-bankrupt State Government. Firstly, the lie was propagated – and immediately raised to the status of the common weal – that only the destruction of Horno would save jobs in the mining industry. "Horno or 30,000 jobs!" was the battle cry at the end of 1993; a year later, after privatisation: "Horno or 12,000 jobs!"; and in 1997, when the Horno Bill was passing through Parliament: "Horno or 4,000 jobs!". The truth is, that more than 90% of jobs in Lausitz brown coal mining in 1990 have since been lost in a never-ending process of rationalization, which has had nothing to do with Horno. In 2005/6, of 57,000 jobs in Lausitz brown coal mining in 1990 just 2,200 – 2,400 will remain in the Lausitz as a whole, after Vattenfall's Lars Josefsson has achieved his intended "synergie effects".
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And then the Brandenburg Government announced, that although Article 25 of the State Constitution protected the Sorb/Wend traditional settlement area, it did not apply to the settlements – that is, Sorb villages – themselves! According to this reasoning, the Sorb village of Horno could be destroyed and its inhabitants resettled within the steadily diminishing Sorb settlement area, without violating the State Constitution. This shameful reinterpretation of the Constitution was a complete contradiction of the intention of the Constitution's founding fathers, which was clearly to protect Sorb/Wend villages from further destruction through brown coal mining. The new policy was nothing less than cultural barbarism. It was, however, the only argument that the Government had to present to the judges of the State Constitutional Court, when the matter came before it, as it surely would
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