“Clear statement from the legislature”
Scholz rejects new attempt for vaccination
04/08/2022 01:48 am
Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach does not want to give up hope: After the vaccination requirement fails in a first vote in the Bundestag, he insists on another “attempt” by autumn. His party colleague, Chancellor Scholz, rejected this request.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected a possible new attempt to introduce mandatory corona vaccination. “There is no legislative majority in the Bundestag for compulsory vaccination,” he said after consultations with the prime ministers in Berlin. This is now the “starting point for our actions”, as much as he regrets it.
He was “of course disappointed that there was no majority today, I don’t want to hide that at all,” said Scholz. “I am still convinced that it would be right if we had a vaccination certificate in Germany.” With the Bundestag decision, however, a “very clear statement by the legislature” has now been made. “We will do everything we can to convince even more citizens of this country to get vaccinated,” announced Scholz. That will “take our creativity to complete”.
On Thursday, a draft law for mandatory vaccinations from the age of 60 failed in the Bundestag. He was supported primarily by MPs from the SPD and the Greens, including Scholz himself and Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach. After the vote, Lauterbach said that in order to “avoid unnecessary victims in the fall, the attempt should not be given up to achieve mandatory vaccination by then”.
Doctors union calls for “real media campaign”
Scholz obviously sees things differently. He finds the Bundestag’s decision “very clear,” said the Chancellor. “And it wouldn’t be very democratic to pretend it was an accident or something.”
After the Bundestag rejected the obligation to vaccinate, the doctors’ union Marburger Bund is demanding more effort from the federal government to increase the vaccination rate. “We expect that the federal government will now make every effort to initiate a real media campaign and at the same time increase vaccination education and advice,” said Chairwoman Susanne Johna to the newspapers of the Funke media group on Friday. “We must not lose sight of the goal of a higher vaccination rate.”
Johna described it as “frustrating” that the Bundestag’s decision against compulsory vaccination put the problem on the shoulders of those who worked in patient care. In the end, it is again doctors and nurses who have to cope with the additional burdens caused by an increased burden of illness.