Thursday April 15, 2021
Doubts about proportionality
Merkel’s lawyers are critical of the emergency brake
Angela Merkel wants to break the third wave of corona with curfews and automatic closings of schools and daycare centers. Everything linked to the incidence value of the respective regions – this is what their emergency brake plans say. However, several reports from the Chancellery have concerns.
Experts in the Federal Chancellery have expressed legal concerns about the federal emergency brake planned to contain the corona pandemic. According to the “Bild” newspaper, several reports from the Chancellery questioned, among other things, the proportionality of the planned nocturnal curfew.
In a note from the beginning of March, a legal expert from the health department stated that the “fundamental validity of a night curfew” was problematic with regard to “proportionality” and the “currently unproven effectiveness” and was classified as illegal in court.
In addition, according to “Bild”, the note criticizes the fact that the draft law provides for a “purely incidence-based standard” to trigger the nationwide emergency brake. In addition to the incidences, other factors such as the R-factor and the number of ICU patients would have to be included.
Eight papers with concerns
According to the comment “Bild”, the “automatic closings of daycare centers and schools” are also classified as “particularly problematic” because they do not adequately take into account the “right to education”. According to the report, the memo was signed by seven other presentations in the Chancellery.
The federal cabinet approved the draft for a new infection protection law on Tuesday, which for the first time provides for a nationwide emergency brake. This should take effect from an incidence value of 100 and includes, among other things, a night curfew and the closure of most shops.
The federal states see a need for improvement in the draft law. Among other things, the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer had expressed doubts about the proportionality. The draft law is to be discussed for the first time in the Bundestag on Friday, and will be passed there as well as in the Bundesrat next week.
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