Wednesday, December 1st, 2021
Corona discussion at Lanz
“Spahn calls Scholz every day”
By Marko Schlichting
After the informal Prime Minister’s Conference on Tuesday afternoon on the current Corona situation, Markus Lanz also continued to turn the topic. The guests largely agree on the steps that are now required – but not on the failures of the current and future federal government. And then there is the question of who will lead the Ministry of Health in the future.
Tuesday was a day of good news in the fight against the corona virus. The incidence rate in Germany fell slightly, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the emergency brake from last spring to be compatible with the Basic Law, and even Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder was satisfied with the Prime Minister’s conference that afternoon. Although she didn’t make a single decision. But Bayern will do things differently, said Söder, which was not surprising.
“You can work on this basis”
In the evening, Markus Lanz discussed with his guests on ZDF what is now necessary to fight the Corona crisis. Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff put it in a nutshell: The previous decisions would not have been enough. At the prime ministerial conference, a tightening of the measures had now been discussed. “You can work on this basis,” says Haseloff. However, nothing was decided on Tuesday. That won’t happen until Thursday, when the prime ministers meet again.
SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil is angry at the attacks by Haseloff and Lanz. Both are of the opinion that the traffic light could have started work and at least nominated a health minister. “We are not yet responsible,” says Klingbeil, it is still the executive federal government. Of course, the future Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz is one of them, albeit as Vice Chancellor.
Klingbeil and Haseloff are not that far apart with their goals. “For me, the most important thing is that the people in this country are protected,” says Klingbeil, and Haseloff adds: “I want the right policies to be made for our country.” Lanz wants to know why Haseloff then did not simply apply the measures made possible by the Infection Protection Act. The CDU politician also has an explanation for this: There are different situations in the different districts.
The virologist Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff can only clap her hands over her head, at least acoustically. She says she can’t understand why the old government needs such a long pause to take decisions. Nor does she expect much from the coming government. The facts were already on the table in July. Haseloff denies this, briefly holds a note in the camera, but then, when Lanz asked twice, cannot name a scientist who has not warned of the current incidence situation. Lanz can do that – and plays a video sequence in which Health Minister Spahn also warned of the current situation in July. Today one is wiser, Haseloff knows, and says: “We have a virus with which we will have to be vaccinated once or twice a year in the future too.” Rübsamen-Schaeff sees it that way too. She demands: “We finally have to do something for drug development.” This also applies to the new, so far barely researched Omikron variant.
“Scholz works every day on the Corona question”
What now has to be implemented quickly? The participants agree: tighten infection protection, no major events, ghost games in the Bundesliga as soon as possible, nationwide introduction of 2G or better 2G Plus, and above all the general compulsory vaccination. The Bundestag could decide on this in the coming week.
Not in this program: The naming of the new Minister of Health. But that’s important, says Rübsamen-Schaeff. “We have so much to do,” she says. Politicians do a lot, thinks Klingbeil. Health Minister Spahn calls Olaf Scholz every day. And he is currently taking care of the Corona issue 24 hours a day, that’s how important it is to him.
But Lanz does not give up. Karl Lauterbach? “We are very happy that Karl Lauterbach is there,” says Klingbeil. Even when Lanz then brings ex-SPD leader Andrea Nahles into the conversation, Klingbeil replies evasively: “I think it’s exciting that you are talking about Ms. Nahles now,” he says. But she withdrew from politics. In fact, Nahles had been traded as the new health minister – two and a half weeks before the general election.
The SPD wants to say next Monday who will be the new health minister. Until then, the name should remain as secret as the discussions about the coalition agreement.