Contact restrictions, stricter requirements for gastronomy visitors and new quarantine rules: The Prime Minister’s Conference is changing a few pandemic levers and preparing for increasing numbers of infections. Scholz wants to convey determination, but cannot hide disputes.
“Self-praise stinks” is a saying. “Do good and talk about it,” is another. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz knows what to do with the latter and, above all, exudes confidence at his first of certainly many Prime Minister’s Conferences in the new year. The corona situation in Germany is much better than was feared a short time ago because the measures taken to reduce contact and accelerate the booster campaign had an effect, says Scholz on late Friday afternoon after the federal-state round.
“We will, I must have said very clearly, experience higher numbers,” Scholz agrees on a sharp rise in the number of infections, as the government’s expert council predicts. He asserts: “Everything that is necessary is done.” The head of government is clearly concerned with conveying how well the federal and state governments have the situation under control. Accordingly, Scholz emphasizes the unity between Berlin and the state capitals – although there are very different views on several points.
Privileges for those who are boosted
There is agreement above all on one of the few fundamental innovations in the corona regime of the federal and state governments: the changed quarantine rules. Boosted contact persons should not experience any restrictions. Employees in systemically relevant industries should be able to free themselves from quarantine more quickly. But why non-boosted contact persons can shorten the ten-day quarantine by three days by doing an antigen test and not necessarily a PCR test, Scholz justifies narrow-lipped when asked: It is the “most suitable and most practicable” method says Scholz.
The main aim of the new regulation is to maintain the critical infrastructure and to provide a further incentive so that as many people as possible can have a booster vaccination. After 30 million vaccinations in December, the federal and state governments want to achieve as much again in January. People who have been injected three times will in future also be preferred when visiting pubs and restaurants because, unlike those who have not been boosted, they do not have to present a daily corona test certificate.
Haseloff leaves
“The federal government and the federal states have jointly developed a balanced quarantine concept,” asserts the current chairman of the conference of ministers presidents, North Rhine-Westphalia’s minister-president Hendrik Wüst. The governing mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, praised the “very, very good preparation” of the conference, which made a quick and unanimous decision possible. Scholz talks about the close and varied agreements between the federal government and the states in the past few days: “You have to imagine that there are constant contacts here,” explains Scholz. The Prime Minister’s Conference is only “the certification of a very intensive consensus-building process”.
But the much-vaunted agreement ends less than an hour’s drive from the gates of Berlin: Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff declares federal unity while Wüst and Scholz assert that his state will not impose the 2G-Plus rule for the time being because Omikron is in Saxony -Stop has not yet arrived. Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow, on the other hand, already finds Omikron in the Thuringian wastewater as an argument that this Corona variant will soon also affect Central Germany.
Wüst calls for faster vaccinations
When it comes to the question of compulsory vaccination, there is only agreement at first glance: Scholz, Wüst and Giffey reported that all 16 prime ministers had decided in favor of compulsory vaccination in their opening statements. “All 16 heads of government of the federal states have admitted that they are in favor of a general vaccination requirement,” says Scholz. He himself has repeatedly stated that “it is good when there is a general compulsory vaccination at the end of the day”.
Wüst also uses his opening statement to demand more speed on behalf of the Union side. In their draft resolution, the federal states led by the CDU and CSU had warned that the mandatory vaccination should come in February, as announced by Scholz. In fact, however, the SPD parliamentary group is more likely to expect March. Adhering to the original schedule is also a question of the reliability of politics, complains Wüst. “The federal states assume that there will soon be a timetable for the introduction of a general compulsory vaccination.”
In the past few days, the Union – led by its parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus – repeatedly demanded that Scholz should show more leadership in introducing mandatory vaccination. “I made sure that we in Germany are now discussing a general vaccination requirement,” said Scholz, expressing his lack of understanding for the criticism of the Union. “I am a member of the German Bundestag, I will vote for compulsory vaccination and promote it.” With the discussion about the appropriate speed, the vaccination obligation, which should actually be conducted independently of the usual parliamentary group discipline, has again become the prey of the party dispute between the traffic light and the Union.
“Unity can withstand dissent”
The Bund-Länder-Round does not let go of the question of the “epidemic situation of national importance”. Wüst explains that the green-ruled Baden-Württemberg and the seven federal states with Union Prime Ministers consider a reintroduction of the emergency that expired in November to be necessary. But the traffic light coalition in the federal government rejects this.
“The determination of the epidemic situation is open,” complains Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder, who anticipates the announcement of the results in Berlin with his press conference in Munich. This rushing ahead is a bit impolite, but the Social Democrat Dietmar Woidke also does it in Potsdam. Scholz answered the question of what was preventing him from reintroducing the system by stating that the federal states could implement all agreements made on the basis of the applicable laws.
The fact that several inquiries are aimed at the obvious disagreements noticeably disturbed Wüst, Giffey and Scholz. “We shouldn’t talk about a split that just doesn’t exist,” says the governing mayor. “There is a consensus in German politics about what to do next,” says Scholz. And Wüst explains: “This great agreement can withstand a dissent on one or the other question.” Continued on January 24th when the Prime Ministerial Conference meets again.