Thursday December 31, 2020
"Not withheld fundamental rights"
Merz calls for more freedom for vaccinated people
Corona vaccinations have been running in Germany since the weekend. CDU politician Friedrich Merz is now calling for privileges for German citizens who have already been vaccinated. With that he stands against his Union colleagues Schäuble, Spahn and Seehofer.
CDU chairman Friedrich Merz wants to give corona-vaccinated people more freedom in the pandemic. "Basic rights are individual rights, but not collective rights, which the state withdraws from everyone if necessary and only granted back to everyone at the same time if the situation allows it again," Merz told the newspapers of the Funke media group. "It is therefore impossible to withhold basic rights across the board from an ever-increasing population group of vaccinated, healthy and convalescent people, because an ever-smaller group is still at risk from the virus."
More freedom rights for people who no longer endanger themselves or others is "therefore no discrimination." This can either be through proof of a vaccination or a negative corona test, said Merz. A de facto vaccination requirement is also excluded.
"But those who consciously decide against a vaccination have to accept that, as long as this risk of infection persists, they must at least do a rapid test before they go to a concert or a football stadium, for example."
Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble has meanwhile spoken out against preferential treatment of vaccinated people. "Preferential treatment for those who have been vaccinated carries the risk of dividing society. We must not drive a wedge between those who have already been vaccinated and those who have not been vaccinated," said the CDU politician of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung". "In any case, now is not the right time to argue about privileges for the first vaccinated people, we still know too little about the duration and extent of the vaccination effect." Health Minister Jens Spahn, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and SPD health expert Karl Lauterbauch had previously spoken out publicly against any special rights.
The constitutional lawyer Christoph Möllers told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" that privileges for vaccinated people could be prevented for a transitional period by a law of the Bundestag. For a few months, in his opinion, there is scope for the legislature to supplement the anti-discrimination law.
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