Thursday, December 23, 2021
“Scholz has to say what he wants”
Union calls for a bill to make vaccinations compulsory
It does not show leadership if the federal government does not have the strength to formulate a bill for a general vaccination requirement, criticizes Union parliamentary group manager Frei. He wants to know from Scholz how far the plans are.
The Union parliamentary group is increasing the pressure on the federal government to quickly come to a decision on the general compulsory vaccination. It is not possible for the federal government to “just stand on the sidelines and see what is going on in the Bundestag,” said the parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, to ntv. “If the Federal Chancellor wants vaccinations to be compulsory, then he must also submit a constitutional draft law and say what exactly he wants. Anything else would be irresponsible.”
The head of the chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt, sent Frei a four-page catalog of questions asking them to answer them “before the end of this year”. In the cover letter, Frei called for “the best possible elaboration of the concrete draft law that will be the basis for parliamentary deliberations”. The CDU politician also points out that Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already spoken out in favor of the introduction of a general vaccination requirement “at the end of February, beginning of March” in November.
Frei said to ntv that “if the federal government does not have the strength to formulate its own proposal” does not show leadership. Indirectly, he made it clear that the Union parliamentary group did not intend to help Scholz achieve a majority that he did not have with his traffic light coalition alone: ”Whether this is ultimately a decision of conscience in parliament is not decided by the federal government, by the way, but by each individual member himself.”
Scholz remains vague about the schedule
In his letter, Frei writes that “just the impression” must be avoided that the federal government is “indifferent to the margins” in the discussion about a general vaccination requirement or is shirking its responsibility. “This would only be more nourishment for the uncertainty of the people in our country and poison for the resolute fight against the pandemic.” In his first question, Frei wants to know, among other things, whether the federal government is planning a compulsory vaccination, how far the planning has progressed and what it looks like.
On Tuesday after the Prime Minister’s Conference, Scholz made it clear that he considers mandatory vaccination to be necessary regardless of progress in the vaccination quota. However, he did not give a date for this. “I consider a compulsory vaccination, which then applies and can be implemented at some point, to be necessary,” said Scholz.
FDP leader Christian Lindner has announced that he will probably vote for mandatory vaccination. But in the FDP there is also strong resistance to such a measure, so that the traffic light coalition would probably not be able to pass a corresponding law through the Bundestag without the votes of the opposition. FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr emphasized in an interview with ntv.de that the topic was “a medical ethical question and thus a question of conscience”. In the coming year there will be MEPs in every political group who are in favor of a general vaccination requirement and those who are opposed to it.