Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
No later than the beginning of March
Scholz announces draft law for compulsory vaccination
In the fight against the pandemic, the Federal Chancellor-designate wants to rely on a general vaccination requirement – including threats of punishment. A legislative procedure is to be introduced in the first few months of the coming year. Meanwhile, Bremen’s Mayor Bovenschulte reports on many open questions.
Federal Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz advocates that vaccination should be mandatory in Germany from the beginning of March at the latest. “My suggestion is that the point in time by which everyone has been vaccinated is not too far off, so my suggestion: at the beginning of February or at the beginning of March,” said Scholz after a federal-state conference at the station “Bild TV”. But he made it clear that the decision on compulsory vaccination rests with the Bundestag.
According to Scholz, the corresponding motions for the Bundestag vote should be submitted before the end of the year. “I assume that it will start this year,” said the SPD politician.
Scholz emphasized that it was a “question of conscience” for the individual members of the parliament: “We will initiate a legislative procedure in which every member of parliament can vote according to his conscience on a general vaccination requirement.” Before that, there should be a facility-related vaccination requirement for old people’s and nursing homes.
A general compulsory vaccination should then be associated with a threat of punishment in the event of violations. However, there have not yet been any specific stipulations. The SPD politician justified the procedure with the tense situation. “If we had a higher vaccination rate, we would have a different situation,” he said. One could “not watch heartlessly how the current situation is”. Therefore, there must be more vaccinations.
Bovenschulte: Many questions unanswered
Scholz also announced that, in the case of fully vaccinated persons, this should no longer be recognized as proof of protection status for a year, as was previously the case. A shortening to six months is currently under discussion. The reason is that it has been found that the vaccination protection does not last as long as initially assumed.
According to Bremen’s Prime Minister Andreas Bovenschulte, there was broad approval of a general vaccination requirement at the federal-state talks. This tendency had become clear from the speeches. However, there are still many unanswered questions, said Bovenschulte. It must be clarified, for example, whether such an obligation also extends to children and young people, which he would not advocate. The question of the exceptional circumstances for an imprisonment must also be answered. “Is this limited to medical reasons, or are there other reasons such as religious beliefs?”
In addition, the question arises of how to enforce a general vaccination obligation, with compulsion or fines, with substitute imprisonment? “These are very important questions,” said Bovenschulte. So far there is also no general vaccination register in Germany. That must be built up before a vaccination is compulsory.