Merkel warns and encourages: Germany gets freedoms on trial

A "month of transition", a "month of opportunity": The surprisingly wide openings within the continued lockdown are intended to point a possible way out of the pandemic. But Chancellor Merkel warns that the emergency brake built into the step-by-step plan is at least as important to her.

For more than eleven hours they debated, informed each other and, which they gladly admit, also argued: The chronicle of nerve-wracking federal-state conferences is one chapter richer after this Wednesday night, but this chapter is at least worth reading because the summit result is reasonably rich is. The federal government and the 16 prime ministers have agreed on a roadmap for normalizing life.

The route to the terminus is not yet available, but at least the direction is clear: Counties with stable incidences below 100 may, if their respective federal states play along, loosen up in small steps. Counties with incidences below 50 are loosening up in larger steps. If you slip over 100 you don't have to go to jail, but you go back to the beginning. Angela Merkel calls this "the emergency brake" which, in her eyes, makes the compromise justifiable. In return, she no longer holds on to the controversial 35s incidence, which was practically buried.

Departure with the handbrake on

This is what it looks like: the step-by-step plan.

Great worries about a third wave and the need to give people a perspective were equally responsible for this summit result. "Today we can speak of hope and the transition into a new phase," says the Chancellor, because she knows that the decision will allow for more extensive openings than was previously generally expected. "We are in a very delicate phase," she warns shortly afterwards, because she fears that the British mutant of the corona virus could destroy all lockdown successes.

Together with Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller and Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder, Merkel continues to demand discipline. The phased plan works with many imponderables, perhaps the biggest of which is how the easing signal will affect the population's already falling reluctance. "We hope that March will be a month of opportunity," says Söder and also calls for "prudence". The summit "found the right balance; but now we all have to support it in practice".

Conditions are conditionally met

Unlike Merkel and Müller, the CSU boss admits that the basis of the easing is shaky: March is a "month of transition, because actually two good instruments – testing and vaccination – are not in the capacity to actually use other instruments to replace." Söder makes no secret of the fact that the essential prerequisites for a real easing course are not in place: "When it comes to testing, we in Germany are not as advanced as we would like to be." And: "When it comes to vaccination, we are not where we want to be when compared internationally."

The openings are flanked by a test offensive, the implementation of which raises many question marks. Starting next week, all German citizens should be able to take a quick test once a week free of charge. How should the test centers be raised from the ground up? Open. In the medium term, however, Merkel says she is relying on the availability of self-tests that are easier to handle. According to information from RTL and ntv, Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn has not yet had this ordered. A working group for the massive acquisition of these self-tests is now to be formed. Or also: only now.

Question mark with the family doctor vaccinations

Disagreement between the lines also on the subject of vaccinations: Merkel speaks of "potential for improvement" because the vaccination intervals are to be stretched and family doctors and specialists will soon also be included. Söder and Müller emphasize, however, that they specifically worked towards this inclusion at the summit. In fact, questions about billing and documentation of vaccinations in the practices are still unanswered, which is why von Spahn still does not have a corresponding vaccination ordinance.

"We have to create the infrastructure at an early stage," says Müller, although we can no longer speak of "early". Time is running out because a real wave of vaccine deliveries is expected from April. Söder praised the fact that he and Müller "felt" at the summit that there was an openness in the federal government when it came to the involvement of resident doctors. With all superficial unity, the federal government and the federal states are trying to ascribe responsibilities between the lines: On this occasion, Müller denies himself on behalf of all the Prime Ministers that the federal states would not quickly inject the vaccine supplied. The figures reported on this were not true.

A lot of challenges and pitfalls of the new step-by-step plan fall within the responsibility of the person who is not sitting in front of the microphones at the end of the summit: Jens Spahn. While Germany has to prove itself week after week, perhaps in March for the first time to be able to attend cultural events or participate in group sports – Merkel calls the incidence criteria "incentives" – the man who explored his chancellor chances over Christmas urgently has to deliver. Literally: test equipment and an efficient vaccination organization. Because the step-by-step plan is not only putting the population to the test: the federal government must also comply with the summit agreements so that spring 2021 will actually be different from the year it was a year ago – a freer one.

. (tagsToTranslate) Politics (t) Angela Merkel (t) Michael Müller (t) Markus Söder (t) Jens Spahn (t) Corona easing (t) Coronavirus mutation (t) Corona vaccine (t) Astrazeneca