D.he North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) has called for respect for the work of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The federal government must also include the RKI’s expert council in its planning in the future, said Wüst after the state minister-presidents with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Tuesday. Wüst is currently the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference (MPK).
A few hours before the top round, the RKI issued a new statement calling for immediate measures such as the closure of restaurants and an extension of the Christmas holidays for schools and daycare centers. The recommendations did not agree with the views of the federal government “in some parts” and went beyond the recommendations of the expert council, said Wüst.
Wüst: Show respect for the RKI
“Yes, the information situation on the part of the federal government in the broadest sense was chaotic and has also led to uncertainty today,” admitted Wüst. The fact that there is a vote by the Federal Government’s Expert Council on the one hand and the paper of the RKI as the highest federal authority on the other can be criticized. But criticizing the institutions for this is inappropriate.
You don’t have to share every single point of the RKI’s views, said Wüst. “But from my point of view it is important that the RKI is shown the respect it deserves.” Because the Federal Institute has “saved many lives” with its work in the past months of the pandemic, said the Prime Minister.
By the next federal-state conference on January 7th, the federal government promised to present concrete plans for the next steps. “We will also have to talk about any necessary legal changes and about adapting the economic aid instruments of the affected areas.”
The foundation of the “protective wall against Omikron” are the contact restrictions that have been agreed, said Wüst. At the same time, the vaccination campaign must “continue at high pressure” in the new year in order to achieve the targeted 30 million more vaccinations nationwide by the end of January. “That is why Omikron urges determination, political leadership and consistent and uniform action more than ever.”
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has meanwhile criticized the RKI’s recommendations, published shortly before the new Corona summit, as “unfortunate”. The RKI recommends something diametrically different from what the new Expert Council of the Federal Government and Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recommended, said Söder on Tuesday evening in Munich. “This has led to serious confusion among the Prime Ministers and the general public,” said Söder.
Söder called on the federal government to ensure that all federal authorities follow a uniform line in the future. The proposals of the RKI, which had called for immediate measures to shut down public life, would not be legally feasible at the moment, said Söder. Such far-reaching cuts could no longer be implemented without a new introduction or extension of the epidemic emergency.
Lauterbach (SPD) said according to information from the German press agency in the federal-state switch that there was no scientific censorship, but the publication of the RKI was “not coordinated”. That shouldn’t happen. Lauterbach himself had ruled out a lockdown at Christmas on the weekend.
Daily at 12.30 p.m.
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Meanwhile, the measures adopted by the federal and state governments in the fight against the pandemic do not go far enough for Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann. The agreed contact restrictions are not sufficient, especially when the situation comes to a head, the Green politician told the SWR on Tuesday evening after the Prime Minister’s Conference. The countries still lacked the instruments to contain the pandemic. If the Omikron mutant ramped up, he could no longer order curfews, criticized Kretschmann.
In a protocol declaration on the decision of the Federal Government and the Prime Ministers on Tuesday, Baden-Württemberg calls on the Bundestag, with a view to the exponential spread of the Omikron variant, to determine the so-called “epidemic situation of national scope” again in the short term. The state governments of Baden-Württemberg and Saxony also declare that they consider the measures adopted by the federal and state governments to counter the pandemic to be inadequate.