Sunday 31 October 2021
Scholz remains on the traffic light course
Merkel for new corona summit with countries
The old government has been voted out of office, the new one is not yet in office and the number of infections is rising rapidly. Chancellor Merkel is inclined to hold one last Corona summit with the countries. The presumed future Chancellor Scholz, however, sets other accents.
According to Chancellor Angela Merkel, the federal and state governments must talk about measures to curb the sharply rising corona numbers. “You have to talk to the federal states again,” said Merkel in Rome on the sidelines of the G20 summit. “We all have one thing in common that we want to prevent overloading the health system,” she added at a joint appearance with SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz. It could be that, regardless of the formation of a government, the question will have to be dealt with again, said Merkel, who is now only executive chancellor. The increase in numbers is “very worrying”.
Scholz said that all departments in Germany should pull together. He called for greater efforts to ensure that more people get a booster vaccination. Differences between the CDU politician and the SPD politician became apparent when it came to the question of which measures should now be taken.
“In any case, everyone in Germany must have the decision-making options that are necessary … so that we can react,” said Merkel. Previously, Chancellor Helge Braun from the CDU had criticized the decision of the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP to make school closings and lockdowns impossible.
Scholz defends traffic light course
Scholz, on the other hand, said that wearing a mask must certainly continue to be prescribed in winter and that 2G and 3G rules must be enforced. But he defended the decisions of the traffic light parties. “What is clear is that in a situation where so many citizens are vaccinated, of course we can no longer react with the same measures as lockdowns,” he added. A great effort must be made to ensure that those who are particularly in need of protection and those who work in areas that need protection make use of the booster vaccination.
Unlike Scholz, the Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, criticized the decision of the traffic light parties not to extend the determination of an epidemic situation of national importance beyond November 25th. “Corona is still a pandemic with national consequences,” says the SPD politician on ARD. She would have liked an extension. Her state government has not thought of lockdowns anyway, “but the important thing is the political message,” she warned.
If it appears necessary for the federal government and the states to meet, then that should also be done, regardless of which government is in office in the future, added Schwesig. “Corona is a common national task, and we have always solved it across parties,” said the SPD politician. At the weekend, for example, the executive health minister Jens Spahn from the CDU, CSU boss Markus Söder and SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach called for a federal and state summit on Corona.