Corona and no end: the sad German special path

You are reading an excerpt from the weekday newsletter “The Other View”, today by Marc Felix Serrao, Editor-in-Chief of the NZZ in Germany. Subscribe to the newsletter for free. Not resident in Germany? Benefit here.

Europe: There is no word that the German government can get so excited about. Europe, as the director of the European Academy in Berlin put it, is literally “baked into the genome” of the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP. The alliance even dreams of a European federal state.

In practice, of course, there is one word that captivates the Berlin coalition members even more than Europe. This word makes them forget Europe and not only gnash their teeth but tread a special national path with fierce pride: Corona.

Other European governments may have long since declared the risk of the virus to be manageable and therefore the pandemic to be over: the Germans are doing their thing. This Thursday, the Bundestag, with the majority of the government factions, passed a package of laws that not only Not declared to be over, but will provide the federal states with a whole range of measures to contain the pandemic, which is said to be still very dangerous, by next spring.

How irresponsible is Emmanuel Macron?

This starts with the possibility of making masks compulsory for students from the fifth grade and does not end with a minimum distance of 1.5 meters, which citizens must also keep from each other outdoors under certain circumstances.

What’s going on in Germany? Does the government in Berlin have knowledge about the virus that other politicians on the continent do not have? Is someone like Emmanuel Macron gambling with the lives of his country’s citizens by relying on recommendations instead of regulations? There was at least an indirect answer on Thursday from Karl Lauterbach, who officially holds the office of Minister of Health, but has in fact almost only appeared as Corona Minister since taking office.

When the legitimate question arose in Parliament as to why the government had abolished the obligation to wear masks on airplanes over the last few meters, but was sticking to the obligation to wear masks on trains, Lauterbach said that “harmonization” with other European countries made sense in principle – but not ” steadily downward as more and more people die.”

One might be surprised at the chutzpah with which a German minister indirectly accuses other governments in Europe of putting their citizens’ lives at risk. But the social democrat has spread too many misconceptions about the pandemic since taking office (and even before) to be taken seriously in this regard.

«Almost all reputable experts»

The appearance of Justice Minister Marco Buschmann was also distressing. The liberal politician, actually a clever person, stood at the lectern and did what he could to downplay the German special path. He recalled that the “progress coalition” had already declared almost all corona protection measures to be over in the spring, despite intense criticism. He then listed what will no longer exist in the future, such as lockdowns or company and school closures. As if a legislative package were reasonable simply because it is no longer as draconian as the previous one.

Buschmann justified the German government’s refusal to declare the pandemic over with the alleged warning from “almost all serious experts”. They said that the situation should be expected to worsen. Or as it says in the legal text: “The occurrence of variants with novel pathogen or immune escape properties is possible at any time and unpredictable.”

It is a sentence to frame: Because a virus that is no longer nearly as dangerous as it used to be could become dangerous again, Germany still needs measures to restrict the freedom of its citizens. One can only be glad that the federal government is isolated in dealing with the pandemic in Europe. In the past, Germany’s national solo efforts were feared. Today they arouse pity.