Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
“I will agree, very clearly”
Scholz is thinking of compulsory vaccination from the beginning of February
Olaf Scholz has already spoken out in favor of a limited compulsory vaccination – now the Federal Chancellor-designate also sees the time for a general compulsory vaccination against the corona virus. The Bundestag should vote on it without the usual parliamentary group obligation.
The expected new Chancellor Olaf Scholz has shown sympathy for a general vaccination against Corona in the federal-state switch. The vote on it in the Bundestag should take place without group pressure, said Scholz in the round, as the media reported unanimously. According to “Spiegel”, it is important to the SPD politician that “we establish a general compulsory vaccination”. He will “in any case agree as a member of parliament, to be very clear”.
As a time frame, Scholz said that the obligation should be waived “if everyone had a realistic chance of being vaccinated twice”. “We should succeed in doing this by the beginning of February,” said the 63-year-old. In the video link, the prime ministers discuss the current corona situation with Scholz and the managing chancellor Angela Merkel.
Scholz had already spoken out in favor of compulsory corona vaccination in certain facilities with risk groups. “Vaccination is the way out of this pandemic,” he said when presenting the coalition agreement. An expansion of a facility-related vaccination requirement remains to be examined. In addition, vaccinations should also be given in pharmacies, dental practices and veterinarians.
Often there is no obligation to join a party when it comes to ethically sensitive issues
A vote without group pressure, as now envisaged, comes into consideration for ethically sensitive issues. Members of parliament are in principle only obliged to their conscience, but as a rule they are expected to base their votes on the majority of their group. Exceptions are made when ethically particularly sensitive decisions have to be made.
The Federal Constitutional Court had previously announced key decisions on lockdown measures from the spring. Accordingly, the measures of the so-called corona emergency brake of the federal government from the third wave of pandemics are constitutionally unobjectionable. Now the central issue was whether, in view of the dramatic emergency in many hospitals, nationwide tightening should come.
In addition, Scholz introduced Major General Carsten Breuer as head of the planned crisis team to combat corona in the switch. The new crisis team should above all accelerate the booster and other corona vaccinations in Germany and start work as soon as possible. In the discussion that followed, several countries pointed out that this was not the actual topic of the deliberations.