Markus Söder apologizes for the Bavarian Corona debacle, but not for his own mistakes. The criticism of Söder is also violent - and there is supposedly "annoyance" in the cabinet.
- After the test fiasco in Bavaria, Markus Söder apologizes.
- The Bavarian Prime Minister himself has to take severe criticism.
- "Annoyance" supposedly comes from the cabinet.
Munich - No doubt: Markus Söder is in the middle of an unpleasant PR disaster on Thursday. Even before the press conference, the gravity of the situation becomes visible: Söder waits a whole moment in the car until his health minister drives up. Only together with Melanie Huml (CSU) does the Bavarian Prime Minister come to the hastily arranged - and unusually delayed - crisis PK.
The chaos of 44,000 wasted corona tests by travelers returning, including more than 1,000 infected people according to new figures, unsettles many people across the country - throughout Germany, not just in Bavaria . That shook confidence in Söder's government. Ironically, on the subject of Corona, with which Söder had previously scored so strongly. While the head of government had sent his minister responsible the day before, he now has to explain himself personally.
Corona debacle: Söder apologizes - at least for the rest of the state government
Söder comes straight to the point. “The mishap that happened is very annoying and regrettable. And that's not what Bavaria demands of itself, ”he admits. "The entire state government is sorry that these mistakes happened, the minister, but also personally." And later the CSU boss emphasized again: "We can only apologize for it."
Söder, who is ahead in Chancellor candidate surveys mainly because of his previous corona crisis management , knows: There is nothing to gloss over the Bavarian test fiasco. Because of Bavarian organizational failure, more than 1000 infected people were ultimately able to travel ignorantly through Bavaria and the rest of the republic for longer than necessary - only because the authorities in the Free State were unable to process and pass on the test results of those returning from vacation to motorway test stations and not even the positive ones . That is bad news for Söder, who has been trying so much to profile himself as a successful anti-corona fighter for months. Only recently he had dealt a violent blow to NRW.
Söder and Huml: Details on the resignation offer - Black Peter with the Minister?
Does Huml, whose crisis management Söder has not always been happy with in the past few months, now has to resign, as parts of the opposition immediately demand? Or does Söder avoid such a “pawn sacrifice” that some of his political opponents warn him about?
The answer is: Söder holds on to Huml, even if the pressure on the two had increased hourly since the admission of the serious breakdown on Wednesday. But at the same time he is very clear about the buck. Huml has offered him her resignation twice , he now reports, about the crucial hours he says: "That was a very moving conversation, and with an open heart." He speaks of a serious mistake by Huml, but also says that none of them are perfect . And: "I continue to trust her."
Summarized again: # Söder apologizes on behalf of the state government for the test delay. Minister #Huml offered to resign twice, but is allowed to stay. Your head of the authorities, Zapf (LGL), will be transferred to the ministry. Probably not yet reached every infected person.
- Christian Deutschländer (@CDeutschlaender) August 13, 2020Huml had assured him that she was willing and able to "wipe out the notch," emphasizes Söder. It sounds a bit as if he was about to secure an option for himself, but still pull the rip cord - and as if he were also denying responsibility for future mistakes.
Söder in the crossfire: “Certificate of poverty” and Corona “security risk for all of Germany”?
On Thursday, his political opponents hold Söder in front of the apparent gap between his public announcements and reality. One sentence is in focus. “A service that we do for Germany,” said Söder only on Monday after an unscheduled video switch in his entire cabinet - and now this chaos with tens of thousands of wasted tests.
Green leader Annalena Baerbock, for example, sees Söder personally responsible for the breakdown. "Anyone who as Prime Minister poses as a crisis manager and constantly pats themselves on the back is also responsible for ensuring that it works," said Baerbock on Thursday. Bavaria's FDP leader Daniel Föst speaks of a “poor certificate” and a “security risk for all of Germany”. He also emphasizes: Söder could not evade responsibility.
Söder in the Corona test debacle: Prime Minister in the criticism - "annoyance" also in your own cabinet?
Söder calls such reactions to be expected - and also permissible if errors occurred. He was not angry with the opposition if they were now "baring their teeth" and saying everything possible. But the fight against the corona virus is not about any beauty contest. In the struggle of the prime ministers over corona regulations, however, it sometimes worked differently.
However, there is also criticism from directly from Bavaria. "It was not the voluntary work that failed, but the downstream institutions," said the managing director of the Bavarian Red Cross , Wolfgang Obermair. Apparently one wants to distribute the burden of the breakdowns on many shoulders. "But our shoulders are not available for this." Even with "one or the other experienced cabinet member" the annoyance is growing , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claims to have learned.
Markus Söder: No mistakes of your own in test strategy? Implementation is to blame - and the pace is making the pandemic
But that's another message that Söder sends on Thursday: He doesn't see his own mistakes. "It was important to us to start as soon as possible," he says of the motorway test stations. There were serious mistakes - but “in the implementation, not in the strategy”.
He also defends his advance, even if the Bavarian authorities did not follow up on the announcements this time. "Perhaps the demands are then higher than the implementation is sometimes possible." And Söder emphasizes: "The fact is: The pace is high: But the pace is not set by us or by me, but determined by Corona."
In fact, it is also a fact: As of Thursday, Söder is still almost the only head of government who offers test stations on the motorways for travelers returning to his country . In most of the countries with German external borders, there are no such stations - in Baden-Württemberg the first should start this week. So holidaymakers come almost everywhere without a wide range of options to be voluntarily tested near the border. “This still doesn't happen in the rest of Germany,” says Söder. The tests are now mandatory only for those returning from risk areas.
Söder therefore urgently warns of a massive deterioration in the corona situation in the coming months. In fact, nobody knows how many returnees will bring the virus home with them. Is it really two percent, as the Bavarian figures suggest? It is still unclear what consequences the Bavarian test breakdown will have. How many infected people are there in the end, where are they now, how many other people may have infected them in the meantime - everything is open.
Corona test failure: Claudia Roth also affected - bitter criticism of "top manager of the pandemic"
In the meantime, a well-known politician has "outed" herself as a victim of the Bavarian test breakdown: The Green Claudia Roth , according to her own statements, is affected by the debacle herself. She is still waiting for the results of her test from August 2, she told the Augsburger Allgemeine . She was tested for the corona virus at Munich Airport . Inquiries came to nothing, the Corona hotline was never available. "In the meantime I've been to a doctor in Augsburg - I had my negative test result within 23 hours."
Roth sharply criticized Söder: "If Mr. Söder stylizes himself as the top manager of the pandemic and constantly announces more controls, but does not make a reality check as to whether there is enough capacity at all, then that is negligent," said Roth. "In these pandemic times in particular, it is extremely dangerous when people's trust in the ability of politics to act is lost through something like that."
It remains to be seen whether the problem will now also dampen the population's desire for Söder to be chancellor. The Neue Ruhr Zeitung commented that due to the corona problems of Union politicians like Laschet and Söder, there was at best one winner: SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz. Even Chancellor Angela Merkel is now in the line of fire. ( dpa / fn )
Meanwhile, it has been shown that there were delays even before the major breakdown. An infected person ran unsuspecting through Hamburg for days after a test in Bavaria.
List of rubric lists: © Peter Kneffel / dpa