Monday, December 6th, 2021
Union congratulates, AfD criticizes
Minister Lauterbach arouses mixed feelings
Health expert Lauterbach is one of the most renowned experts in the SPD. Now the 58-year-old surprisingly becomes Minister of Health. On the net there is mostly praise for the decision. However, there are also critical voices.
Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, SPD politician Karl Lauterbach has been pouring pure wine and thus polarizing again and again. His obsession with detail is the hallmark of the epidemiologist, who now shows a permanent presence on the television talk shows of the republic.
This is precisely why it has long been considered uncertain whether the new Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz will bring him into his cabinet. But in the end Scholz, who is said not to have a very good relationship with Lauterbach, could not help but make the headstrong health expert minister. This morning Scholz made the change public. The decision received a lot of applause – but also criticism.
The Acting Minister of Health Jens Spahn wished his successor all the best. “Dear Karl Lauterbach, congratulations on this important and difficult, but also very nice task. I wish you every success and the best of luck. Because it’s about our country. Overcoming this pandemic remains a joint task,” tweeted the Union politician. Also Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder congratulated: “This is a good choice,” tweeted the CDU boss. “I’m looking forward to good cooperation in serious times.”
The Green Health Expert Janosch Dahmen also took the news positively. “His expertise and scientific approach will be a huge added value for the executive fight against pandemics,” said Dahmen on Twitter. “I particularly appreciate his collegiality and his commitment to people without a large lobby in the healthcare sector.”
Medical representatives are willing to cooperate
With Wolfang Kubicki Lauterbach was often not in line when it came to Corona. Nevertheless, the FDP politician didn’t say too bad words. “I have already congratulated Karl Lauterbach. The German talk show scene will now have to do without him more often. So everything has its good side,” said the Bundestag vice-president of the “Bild” newspaper.
“Prof. Lauterbach is a proven expert on the German health system and from the beginning of the pandemic was always a warning voice to act with foresight and take adequate protective measures,” praised the President of the German Medical Association Klaus Reinhardt. “We offer the new Federal Minister of Health our open willingness to cooperate (…).”
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians also showed a willingness to cooperate. “In the future, Mr. Lauterbach, an accomplished expert on the complex health system, will head the ministry. We offer our cooperation, suggestions and expertise,” said the chairman of the board Andreas Gassen. The Marburger Bund doctors’ association agreed. “I am delighted that a doctor will become Minister of Health,” said the chairwoman Susanne Johna in conversation with the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “We have known Mr. Lauterbach for a long time. He is a proven specialist and has not only proven since the pandemic that he has a high level of expertise.”
RTL presenter Pinar Atalay is already looking into the future: “Next time, actually as Minister of Health at RTL Direkt. Mr. Lauterbach, until the next show and a good hand for our country.” The journalist Jens Clasen commented the reactions on the net a bit snappy: “You know how your health system is doing when people celebrate that a health expert is finally appointed health minister.” The satirical show Extra 3 of the NDR tweeted with a wink: “Full-time talk show guest Karl Lauterbach accepts part-time job as Federal Minister of Health!”
More than a “corona firefighter”?
There was criticism of the decision in favor of Lauterbach on the part of the AfD and the left. “Small question aside: Will the Anne-Will-Talk then be broadcast from the foyer of the Federal Ministry of Health in the future? Ask a friend who has something to do with the media,” wrote the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the left-wing parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Jan Korte, on Twitter.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch also alluded to the media presence of Lauterbach. Public pressure brought Lauterbach to the Ministry of Health, Bartsch told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “He will have to show that he will be as influential there as on the country’s talk shows and that he is more than a corona firefighter.”
AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel sees Lauterbach as the future health minister critical. “While the SPD did not trust him to have any competence in health issues in the last legislature and he therefore did not hold any functions, Karl Lauterbach is now actually going to be Minister of Health. It could not have been worse for Germany.” Party colleague made a similar statement Beatrix von Storch: “Lauterbach will be Minister of Health? When you can no longer distinguish between satire and reality,” tweeted the chairman of the AfD parliamentary group.