Study commission called for
FDP wants to have pandemic policy addressed
By Volker Petersen and Sebastian Huld
September 8, 2023, 6:46 p.m
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The corona incidence is likely to rise again next autumn, but the pandemic is considered over. The FDP is now putting its demand back on the agenda to take a closer look at the politics of the past few years. What’s behind it?
The corona pandemic is in the rearview mirror, even if the incidence could rise again this fall. But it still remains an issue in Berlin – the FDP raises the question of whether all the measures against the virus were really appropriate. The party’s general secretary, Bijan Djir-Sarai, calls on ntv.de for a study commission to investigate the handling of the then federal government.
“We have to clearly identify, transparently process and analyze the mistakes that those responsible in politics have made,” he explained to ntv.de. This is about “massive social and economic upheavals” that were associated with individual decisions. Pupils, trainees and students suffered enormously from the strict measures.
The commission should also examine the relationship between the legislative and executive branches. “The consideration and involvement of parliaments during the pandemic was often inadequate or non-existent, as we Free Democrats have repeatedly pointed out. It is also about the question of what lessons will be learned for the future. Politics is important to the people in our country “Due to factual investigation,” continued Djir-Sarai.
The last Merkel cabinet would probably be particularly affected
A study commission is appointed by the Bundestag. A quarter of MPs would have to vote for it. MPs and experts prepare “Make decisions on extensive and important issues”. Such an investigation would primarily concern Chancellor Angela Merkel’s last cabinet and thus the government of the CDU and SPD, which was in office until the end of 2021 – as well as, for example, the work of then Health Minister Jens Spahn. The most serious measures such as lockdowns fall during this time.
The FDP had this in the spring a position paper has already been submitted. Little to nothing has happened since then. Now the debate is moving again. Left-wing politician Gregor Gysi only spoke out in favor of a study commission on Thursday. “We need a study commission in which we raise all questions related to Corona and the pandemic,” said Gysi on MDR. According to Gysi, this is about vaccine damage, for example.
The aim is to say: “Well, that was right, we would have to do it again in such a case, but that was wrong, we shouldn’t repeat that.” The population has a right to the Bundestag taking up this. “I will address the questions.” For this, Gysi even resigned from his position as foreign policy spokesman for his group, as he said in a podcast from the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”. “That will take all my time, then others should do foreign policy,” Gysi continued. He has already received approval for the commission from politicians from the CDU, CSU and SPD. According to ntv.de information, the SPD parliamentary group is also increasingly concerned with the issue, and a growing number of MPs can apparently imagine such a commission.
The Union parliamentary group’s health policy spokesman, Tino Sorge, also signaled his approval to ntv.de. “As a Union, we signaled early on that we were willing to participate in an evaluation of Corona policy. However, a review can only be successful if the current government factions also show an interest in it.” Worry: “The traffic light is on.” Apparently the coalition partners have not yet been able to agree on a common position.
Since only a quarter of the MPs are needed to set up a study commission, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group could also decide on this on its own. However, in recent decades it has been common practice to only appoint such commissions with a large majority. Worry continues: “A commission of inquiry would now be running out of time.” In doing so, he points out that it would have to submit a final report by the end of the legislative period in 2025. However, it would be possible that only an interim report would be produced and the commission would receive a new mandate in the following Bundestag.
Greens against it
According to ntv.de information, the Union parliamentary group is also considering setting up a federal-state committee instead of a study commission, as the states and the Prime Minister’s Conferences play a prominent role in the fight against the pandemic.
The Greens are critical of a study commission. Health policy spokesman Janosch Dahmen rejected this as early as April. He expressed the fear to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that in the end it would be more of a battle over interpretive sovereignty and subsequent apportionment of blame and that further trust from the population would be lost.” He also criticized FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki. He had during the pandemic repeatedly represented “extreme positions” and “attempted to provoke a social division through rhetoric that was sometimes close to the AfD.”
The FDP spoke out in favor of an end to the Corona measures, particularly in the late phase of the pandemic at the end of 2021 and 2022. In April 2022, the FDP parliamentary group also voted almost unanimously against the general vaccination requirement, which the SPD and Green parliamentary groups had supported in their vast majority. This prevented compulsory vaccination.
Coming to terms with the pandemic is also an issue in the federal states. There are also some considerations about setting up a study commission, for example in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD in particular is pushing the issue forward and is even calling for investigative committees in which individual politicians could be proven to have committed misconduct. There is already one in Brandenburg, and in Thuringia AfD state leader Björn Höcke announced that a committee of inquiry would be set up in the next legislature. In Bavaria, an investigative committee worked on the affair surrounding mask deals.