In Germany there could soon be a general compulsory vaccination. Markus Lanz’s guests will also discuss this. Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Kretschmann uses the opportunity for a fire speech.
Only a few more hours and Germany’s first traffic light coalition will be in office. One day later, on Thursday, the prime ministers of the federal states will meet again. One topic of the discussions with the new Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz could then be the introduction of mandatory vaccinations. That was also the topic on Tuesday evening in the program “Markus Lanz” on ZDF. In addition, the participants in the discussion group analyzed the increasing radicalization of some of the anti-vaccination groups. The ZDF had previously reported on a chat in the Telegram news service in the program “Frontal”, in which plans were openly discussed, according to which Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer should be murdered.
The situation in the intensive care units spoke in favor of the decision on a general vaccination requirement, said Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann on the program. “It gets under your skin what is happening,” said the Green politician. Immunologist Christine Falk from the Hannover Medical School criticized: “We have been saying for too long that we do not need a mandatory vaccination.” And further: “I would like to do without compulsory vaccination, but I don’t know what to do next.” It was similar to Kretschmann. He hopes that the current discussion will bring as many people as possible to get vaccinated.
Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier from the SPD also says that he does not want to rule out anything related to the compulsory vaccination at the moment. But he has a bigger concern: Opponents of vaccinations, especially in East Germany, for whom not vaccinating is an instrument of resistance. “This is where the education ends; in order to get the vaccination quota to where it needs to go, we have nothing else to do than compulsory vaccination.” At the same time he pointed out that the majority of Thuringians had been vaccinated. The radical opponents of vaccination are a small but noisy part of the population.
Kretschmann agreed to this. And he explained that an even smaller part of the radical opponents of vaccination are also militant. Kretschmann admitted that society was divided. This is one of the reasons why it makes sense for the state to make vaccination compulsory. “Then he pulls the conflict out of society, he pulls it to himself.”
Journalist and publicist Olaf Sundermeyer does not believe in a division of society. However, he sees divisive tendencies. He assumes that the discussion about compulsory vaccination will lead to the fact that anti-vaccination opponents who have already been radicalized will become more radicalized. “The political failure of the last few months has intensified the anger, which is primarily directed against the state, whose representatives have been blamed for it – from police officers to politicians.”
Three groups of unvaccinated people
Interior Minister Maier agreed. In Thuringia, the demonstrations were mainly initiated by neo-Nazis, he said. “Other people join in and have no idea who they are taking out on the street with.” Sundermeyer contradicted: “They already know that very well. They accept it.” And Kretschmann added: “The SA invented the march with torches in front of the private apartments of politicians.” Kretschmann alluded to the fact that a group of right-wing extremists had besieged the house of the Saxon Minister of Health Petra Köpping last weekend. “The democratic state has to prove itself defensible against such a thing,” he said.
But it is important to him not to lump these people together with the majority of the unvaccinated. Kretschmann identified three groups among the unvaccinated: right-wing extremist opponents of democracy, deluded vaccine skeptics and people with vague fears. One must approach this large third group. “As a democratic state, we must never give up people.” You have to show respect for people who are afraid of vaccinations, but to be tough on radicals.
Scientist Falk saw it exactly that way. Many emails showed that people only dealt with the vaccination topic in the current situation. That is why you always have to start over with the explanations.
“Endless Debate”
Then Markus Lanz asked the Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg whether everything had really been done to prevent a possible vaccination requirement. Then he ran into the wrong person at Kretschmann’s, because he got really angry. You could always do more, but that was a never-ending debate.
And further: “We are now at a stage where we can no longer deal with the corona crisis. We have a global pandemic with over four million deaths. This is an extremely exceptional situation. And only in such a situation do we take action a means like compulsory vaccination. Nobody has to be afraid that it will spread or that we will find pleasure in it. The free state of course also has respect for the stubbornness of its citizens. But in this situation, where the stubbornness endangers others, that is different. But we promise that we will not find any pleasure in governing. I am glad when I have all this behind me. I do not enjoy making such ordinances and joking people. But in this extreme situation it is a requirement of practical reason “, so Kretschmann literally.
The laughter of the moderator during this incendiary speech must have seemed helpless, inappropriate and out of place for many viewers. Important for Kretschmann: introduce compulsory vaccination quickly, put an end to the debates about it. “You don’t get any smarter from that either.” In the end, Lanz wanted to know whether the vaccination will be compulsory. “I do not rule out anything that is possible within the framework of the constitution,” replied Kretschmann and Maier in unison.