Saturday, December 4th 2021
Constitutional Protection Findings
Strobl warns of radicalization through compulsory vaccination
The head of the Conference of Interior Ministers, Thomas Strobl, advocates the introduction of a general compulsory vaccination against the coronavirus. But he also warns that this step could dangerously radicalize the lateral thinker movement. Other politicians are also skeptical.
The chairman of the conference of interior ministers, Thomas Strobl, has warned of a radicalization of the corona protests in the event of compulsory vaccination. According to the intelligence of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, one can assume that “compulsory vaccinations will reinforce the aggressive attitude of the lateral thinker movement,” said the Baden-Württemberg interior minister to the newspapers of the Funke media group. Suspected opponents of the state corona measures had already committed several acts of violence in the past few months. Including the murder of a petrol station employee in Idar-Oberstein and, most recently, an attack on the health department in Altenkirchen in Rhineland-Palatinate.
“The lateral thinking movement is dangerous for our free democracy, and it is becoming even more dangerous,” said Strobl. “She thinks she recognizes an advancing dictatorship. She thinks that she is increasingly recognizing a delegitimate state against which resistance is justified.” In the fight against Corona, however, it is right to introduce a general compulsory vaccination. “Even if there should be increasing radicalization: We will not let extremists, conspiracy ideologues and anti-Semites stop us from doing the right thing.”
Most recently, numerous politicians had spoken out in favor of a general compulsory vaccination against the corona virus. Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz has announced that it should be voted on in the Bundestag without parliamentary group discipline. According to government spokesman Steffen Seibert, such a vote could take place at the beginning of the year.
“In the chest tone of conviction” promised the opposite
The topic is controversial – among other things because leading politicians had long ruled out compulsory vaccinations. “We have been saying for 20 months in the chest tone of conviction that there will be no compulsory vaccination,” said the outgoing CDU leader Armin Laschet of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”. “And suddenly I don’t hear anyone repeating a sentence like that anymore.” When asked whether he would vote for compulsory vaccination as a member of the Bundestag, he said: “Before the election, I promised that there would be no compulsory vaccination. That is why you have to make this decision carefully.”
The head of the Standing Vaccination Commission, Thomas Mertens, was negative. “Personally, I am not a fan of compulsory vaccinations. I have never been and I will no longer be,” he told the “Rheinische Post”. “I always prefer it when I succeed in convincing people to do something useful like vaccination.” But it is also clear that “compulsory vaccinations are not a matter of science, but of politics”.
The deputy chairman of the Greens, Ricarda Lang, said, on the other hand, that a general vaccination requirement is a very far-reaching interference with fundamental rights. “But if we weigh it up against the restrictions that are otherwise necessary again and again, repeated lockdowns or strict contact restrictions, for example, a vaccination requirement is the prerequisite to tread the path back to freedom,” she told the “Passauer Neue Presse”.
Ethics Council asked for opinion
The outgoing Chancellor Helge Braun argued that one had to learn again and again in the pandemic. “A compulsory vaccination can lead to further social divisions, as we have already experienced. But a never-ending pandemic also leads to a division of society,” said the CDU politician of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. Braun – who is running for the CDU chairmanship – demanded: “It shouldn’t be an ad-hoc decision, but should be accepted and supported by as many people as possible.” He therefore thinks it is right that the Federal Government should ask the Ethics Council to issue a balanced opinion.
The background to the debate is, among other things, the dramatic development of the fourth corona wave in Germany. In order to break this, the federal and state governments agreed this week on nationwide significantly stricter requirements and restrictions. These range from considerable contact restrictions for unvaccinated and non-convalescents to 2G regulations for visiting restaurants, cinemas, theaters and other leisure facilities – i.e. access only for vaccinated and convalescent people. This Saturday, for example, stricter rules will come into force in Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg.