The federal and state governments agree on extensive measures to combat the fourth wave. But the outgoing Chancellor and her successor rate this success very differently. Much would not have been missing for a major corona blockade in German politics.
It would not have been missing that much and the ongoing Corona crisis would have experienced the next mutation: to the government crisis. In the federal and state levels, a deep dichotomy had arisen over the past few weeks about how to deal with the fourth wave of pandemics. The line of conflict runs between the Union on the one hand and the three traffic light parties on the other, whereby the Union side has the authority, but the SPD, FDP and the Greens have power. Here the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference, the Christian Democratic NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst; there is the emerging Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the majority of the federal states ruled by the SPD and the Greens. In the struggle with unprecedented corona infection rates, a new, dynamic power structure is at work in Germany that could easily have blocked one another – at a critical point in time.
At the end of a politically very exciting Thursday, this blockade was averted for the time being: the heads of government of all federal states found so much agreement with the representatives of the outgoing and future federal government at the Prime Minister’s Conference (MPK) that the infection protection law passed in the Bundestag in the morning was not released on Friday Union will be blocked in the Federal Council. The Union is still dissatisfied with the fact that the epidemic situation is running out of national scope. But at least she has made Scholz promise that the corona measures will be checked again at another MPK on December 9th.
Merkel makes her disappointment clear
“We received the commitment today from the Federal Minister of Finance,” said Wüst. This “evaluation clause” is important. “And for that I thank you very much,” said Wüst in the direction of Scholz. Otherwise the conflict would have intensified – even if the outgoing Chancellor had warned her party not to block this issue. But Merkel also stated again after the MPK: “If the epidemic situation of national scope is lifted – which does not make sense to me at all, what I have always considered wrong as a psychological signal – then I would at least have wished that the Countries have the same measures as before. “
And it is precisely this point of contention that remains open. Because Scholz considers the infection protection law passed on Thursday to be appropriate and said after the agreement of the Prime Minister’s Conference: “I think that was a really good day.” The Infection Protection Act is a “much more extensive catalog of measures than was previously available”. He cannot understand the accusation that the traffic light is not pressing enough against the ongoing corona wave. On the contrary: “In order to get through the winter, we will see drastic measures that have not yet taken place,” said Scholz, referring to the first-time introduction of the 3G rule at work, in local public transport and on trains.
A Union success that Scholz needs
Scholz also largely avoided any drastic descriptions of the situation. “I say, however, that the situation is highly dramatic,” warns Merkel. “It really is absolute time to act.” Wüst stated: “In this pandemic we are very, very close to the point we never wanted to get to, namely that German hospitals have to decide who can still be treated.” Scholz only says: “It is important that we negotiate now.”
The SPD is even right that the Union has put pressure elsewhere. The federal states and the federal government have agreed that there should be compulsory vaccination for healing and nursing professions as well as for all employees in hospitals and facilities for the disabled. The SPD and the Greens also want that, but have so far failed due to resistance from their traffic light coalition partner, the FDP. “Since the federal government has reached an amicable agreement with the federal states on this paper, one can assume that this open-mindedness is very extensive and will also reach the next government,” said Scholz after the MPK. The FDP is now also in the countries where it is a junior partner of the CDU, under pressure to bow to compulsory vaccinations.
2G everywhere soon
Even if the Union’s measures decided in the Bundestag and the Bund-Länder-Round do not go far enough, at the end of this day a largely comprehensive and uniform set of instruments has been established. 2G as a prerequisite for access to almost everything in every federal state where the hospitalization rate is greater than 3. This is the case almost everywhere and soon across the country. From a value greater than 6, the federal states should impose 2G-Plus rules, i.e. they should be able to request daily tests in addition to proof of vaccination or recovery.
If the hospitalization rate is greater than 9, the federal states may pull out all the stops according to their own legislation. But what these are remained unclear on Thursday. Wüst complained that it could not be “that in extreme hotspots it is not possible to close all catering establishments across the board”. The Union MPs also complained about this in the morning in the Bundestag, while traffic light politicians like the Green MP Manuela Rottmann read from the legal text to show that everything necessary was also legally possible.
Everyone wants boosters now
Traffic light parties and the Union, on the other hand, agreed that the booster vaccination for everyone over 18 with more than 5 months after the last corona vaccination should now be initiated as soon as possible. On the same day, the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) had given the expected recommendation on this. Merkel spoke of “good news”. “But it’s also challenging news because it means 27 million more people will have to be vaccinated.”
Scholz even counted “almost 30 million booster vaccinations” that have to be injected by the end of the year. “Organizing that is a great effort,” said Scholz, a “feat of strength”. And Berlin’s outgoing governing mayor, another politician on the go, warned the many people interested in boosting against “waiting times”. And: “I ask for your understanding.” Because the refreshing campaign, which was started late, falls under the responsibility of all government parties in the federal and state levels, no dissent was heard on Thursday.