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Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (from left)
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Angela Merkel has been sitting with the heads of government of the federal states for more than six hours this Wednesday, when the Chancellor makes a devastating verdict.
"I'm not satisfied," she says according to the participants.
The results are "not hard enough that we avert disaster".
It is a dramatic announcement in what is arguably the toughest and most fiercely contested Prime Minister's conference since the beginning of the corona pandemic.
At this point, Merkel was already working through point by point with the other top politicians.
The mask requirement, the contact restrictions, the curfew - all the things that should prevent the infection process in Germany from getting out of hand.
But what is finally on the seven-page paper is obviously not enough for Merkel.
She wants to talk about everything again.
More time goes by.
In the end, it is around 10 p.m. when the group finally comes to an agreement - after more than eight hours of arguments and discussions.
Shortly afterwards, the Chancellor sat in front of the waiting journalists in the Chancellery with a broken voice.
What worries her, says Merkel, is the exponential increase in the corona numbers.
You have to stop it.
"Otherwise it won't end well."
Infection numbers are increasing
Merkel has always been one of the warning signs of this crisis.
In the summer months, however, she was literally submerged.
Now she's going on the offensive again.
For good reason.
In many places in the republic, the number of infections is rising rapidly again.
On Wednesday, the Robert Koch Institute reported 5,132 new infections within 24 hours.
Just a few days ago there were less than half as many.
There are more corona deaths again.
The economy groans.
In winter, when public life moves further indoors, things could get much worse, experts fear.
Merkel sees it that way too.
The announcements of their allies in the fight against the pandemic were therefore clear.
The debate in the prime ministerial group has a "historical dimension," said Chancellery Minister Helge Braun the day before.
It was "five to twelve," warned Bavaria's CSU Prime Minister Markus Söder.
First personal meeting in months
The meeting in the Berlin Chancellery should in itself be a warning.
For the first time in almost four months, the heads of government are sitting face to face again.
Söder, Armin Laschet and all the others.
The fact that they were going to Berlin of all places for this made some puzzled in advance.
After all, the capital is a virus hotspot, a risk area within Germany.
From Thuringia it is said that the state chancellery there has investigated the responsible health department: what does the trip to Berlin mean for Bodo Ramelow?
Does the Prime Minister even have to be quarantined after his return to Erfurt?
The answer: no, no problem.
After all, Ramelow is not staying at Merkel's home.
But the signal from the personal meeting is clear.
A real course correction should be made, after which the people in the country have to adjust to stricter rules and restrictions again.
At least according to the will of the Chancellor.
The message: it's serious.
But on this Wednesday it quickly becomes clear that a quick understanding will not work.
The atmosphere is tense from the start.
The heads of government who do not belong to the Union are upset because they only received the draft resolution for the conference from the Chancellery at short notice - later than their conservative colleagues.
Frustrated intervention
Much more important, however: The major differences in the fight against Corona are now clearly emerging again.
The dispute between the proponents of the toughest possible protective measures and the representatives of a less strict line had shaped the discussions in recent months.
The result: different rules and requirements apply everywhere in the republic, and the situation has become increasingly confusing.
Most recently, Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer had warned of "hysteria" in SPIEGEL.
These are statements that Merkel probably doesn't like to hear at the moment.
It is extremely difficult to hear from everyone on Wednesday.
At 5 p.m., three hours after the talks began, not a single essential detail had been agreed.
At 7 p.m. there is dinner first.
Merkel's frustrated intervention ultimately brings little.
Apparently, not much has changed in the resolution formulated at that time.
Faster, stricter rules
First of all, the paper definitely means that more stringent measures will take effect more quickly.
The core component is a kind of traffic light system.
The idea: if the chains of infection in a region exceed certain limit values, restrictions will come into effect in stages - from now on when at least 35 people per hundred thousand inhabitants become infected over a seven-day average.
In this case, a "supplementary mask requirement" should apply in the public space in the affected areas if people come together closer or longer.
The number of participants at events would be further limited, a curfew is recommended in restaurants.
However, the heads of government cannot agree on specific values.
Celebrations with family and friends are limited to 25 people in public and 15 in private rooms.
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Journalists waiting in front of the Chancellery
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
If the number of new infections per week increases to 50 per hundred thousand inhabitants, a curfew from 11 p.m. applies in the catering trade, only ten people are allowed to meet in public spaces, private celebrations are also limited to ten participants and two households, events are only included a maximum of one hundred participants allowed.
The mask requirement is to be expanded.
The present plan is now something like one of the last escalation stages before the new lockdown.
Ten day ultimatum
In any case, the decision contains a real ultimatum.
It literally says: "If the increase in the number of infections does not come to a standstill within 10 days at the latest under the aforementioned measures, further targeted steps to restrict the disease are inevitable."
In concrete terms, this means that only five people or members of two households can be present together in public space.
That would in part be reminiscent of the situation in spring, when Germany stood still.
The decisive factor is that the new rules apply nationwide - and are intended to remove the much-criticized patchwork quilt in the republic.
But apparently this is only partially successful.
The heads of government do not overturn the extremely controversial rules on the ban on accommodation, which apply in many but not in all federal states.
However, you simply postpone this to November 8th.
Until then, each state will continue to do its own thing.
For Merkel this is the biggest defeat.
She believes that travel could be a decisive factor in spreading the virus.
There is still a lot of work to be done, she later told the press.
At your side are Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller and Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder, who recently had some violent skirmishes in the corona dispute.
From Munich's point of view, people from the capital often acted too carelessly during the crisis - like other state governments, against which Söder repeatedly taunts.
The “team prudence and caution” prevailed today, says Söder at the press conference.
He doesn't stop with the little mean things this evening either.
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