Friday, November 26th, 2021
Wissing in the ntv early start
FDP does not rule out compulsory vaccination or lockdown
The FDP will soon be in the federal government. With a compulsory vaccination for everyone and a general lockdown, she finds it particularly difficult. But even the Secretary General demands that these instruments have to be examined.
Volker Wissing, General Secretary of the FDP and designated Federal Minister of Transport, has called for all possibilities of the Basic Law to be used to fight the corona virus. “We have to win this fight and we have to exhaust all the possibilities that our Basic Law offers to push back Corona without thinking bans,” Wissing said in the ntv early start.
When asked whether Wissing could rule out another lockdown for everyone, the FDP politician said: “After what we have seen in recent months, it is not wise to keep locking things out.” Wissing emphasized that this lockdown was not wanted because it would have serious consequences for education and the economy. However, fighting the virus must have “priority”. The fourth wave must be mastered and an overload of the health system prevented, said Wissing.
“Obviously have to go further”
When asked about compulsory vaccination for everyone and whether the FDP would support it in the end, Wissing said that there was a large consensus within the party that they did not want this. However, that was at a time when there was still hope that Germany could achieve herd immunity through vaccinations. Wissing added: “We obviously have to go further than before and therefore have to jointly explore exactly what is constitutionally possible.”
A compulsory vaccination is, however, not “trivial” and not easy to enforce across the board: “Nevertheless, we must also examine this instrument. We cannot allow ourselves that the possibilities that the Basic Law offers to fight the virus are not exhausted.”
“Infection Protection Act is good”
Wissing also repeated his appeal to the federal states to implement the relevant regulations “immediately”: “I can only appeal to everyone, now as much as possible to initiate contact restrictions.”
At the federal level, however, government responsibility is still “in the hands of Angela Merkel and her executive government”. The traffic light parties’ new infection protection law is “good and where it has to be improved, it will also be improved,” said Wissing.
With a view to the long-term fight against corona, Wissing highlighted the federal government’s planned crisis team. “I find it regrettable that something like this does not exist yet. That it exists now is an achievement of the traffic lights,” emphasized Wissing.
They will then evaluate the number of infections, occupancy of the hospital beds and the status of the vaccinations “daily”, among other things: “Don’t wait every few weeks and then rush to a prime ministerial conference, but the daily evaluation. I believe that this is urgently needed, because there have obviously been a number of misjudgments in the past, “said Wissing.