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Chancellor Merkel
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
At 1 p.m. almost everyone is connected this Tuesday.
Actually, it should start two hours in advance - and even now nothing happens for minutes, as participants of the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK) report later: The key players are not even part of the digital group.
Chancellor Angela Merkel, Head of Office Helge Braun, Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller as the current MPK boss and his deputy, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder, continue to work on the draft resolution, without which it cannot start.
The time has come around 2 p.m.
Hopes in the group that one would at least get results sooner after the doubly delayed start were not fulfilled: Merkel, Müller and Söder did not appear for the obligatory press conference until four and a half hours later.
However, this is nothing against the basic hopes that were already dashed in the first days of the new year: Corona and the fight against the virus, that is finally clear after this first MPK, will continue to dominate the lives of Germans.
The return to normality, which many dreamed of at the end of last year, is not coming anytime soon.
The current shutdown will initially be extended to the end of January and in parts even tightened.
The Chancellor puts it this way: "The measures that we have decided are drastic." And: "They are tougher."
2021 began with the bitter realization that there are too few doses to have all interested Germans vaccinated quickly.
In addition, there are logistical problems around the vaccination centers in many places.
In addition, there is concern about virus mutations.
At the same time, the number of deaths continues to rise, by almost 1,000 per day, and the other indicators are also alarmingly high.
Experts at the group explained the previous evening that some figures are even higher in real terms than statistically recorded at the moment.
And now a political dispute is flaring up within the coalition, which so far has been fairly united in the fight against Corona.
The mood at the press conference is correspondingly subdued.
"Now is no time for half-heartedness," says MPK boss Müller of the SPD.
There is "no way to give the all-clear," says his CSU deputy Söder.
And yes, "there is a perspective," asserts Chancellor Merkel.
But it's just a very vague one.
This is obviously not conducive to the mood within the coalition and between the federal government and the prime ministers these days.
In any case, Bavaria's Prime Minister Söder should not be envied that he has to spend part of his 54th birthday on January 5th in the MPK.
The two-fold delayed round has only just begun, since North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) wants to get his colleagues to commit to European vaccine procurement.
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's head of government Manuela Schwesig (SPD), on the other hand, initially protests against criticism by Health Minister Jens Spahn of the vaccination practice in the federal states.
The CDU politician asserts that he never practiced it.
The vaccination debate goes straight to the point - and it also deals with fundamental questions: Would the federal government better have taken care of enough doses for Germany on its own?
That would have been vaccination nationalism, some defenders of the coalition say indignantly.
A fierce public dispute has broken out over it, which seems to divide party friends even within the federal government.
Participants heard that there was no sign of the suspected dispute between Chancellor Merkel and Health Minister Spahn.
However, this could also be due to the fact that the CDU ranks have closed again for the time being because of the no-confidence vote against Spahn, disguised by the SPD as a list of questions.
At the press conference, the Chancellor valiantly defends her minister.
Merkels Brass received the SPD government leaders Schwesig and Malu Dreyer from Rhineland-Palatinate.
"If I ever unpack the mistakes that went wrong here in this round," says the Chancellor, according to participants, when the Social Democrats criticize the EU in the vaccination debate.
"We also make a lot of mistakes here," Merkel reportedly continues.
"I find ourselves very self-confident about how we judge others." In the end, the group agrees that they welcome the joint procurement of vaccines.
And because the corona numbers simply do not want to fall, increasingly stricter rules are now being issued.
Most recently, there has been a lot of excitement about the seemingly unbridled day tourism taking place in the winter sports regions.
Finally, the decision even contains a conditioned restriction on freedom of movement: In
hotspots with a 7-day incidence of over 200 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants
, the paper says, citizens
should only move within a radius of 15 kilometers from their place of residence
allowed to.
Exceptions should only be made if there are good reasons, day trips are not a valid reason.
The most important other decisions provide for the following:
The extension of the current shutdown will be tightened insofar as
private meetings are
only permitted with
one person
outside of one's own household.
People in
old people's and nursing homes
should be better protected.
In the past few weeks this has not been successful everywhere.
That is why the federal and state governments are planning an initiative to recruit volunteers to carry out rapid tests in the facilities.
Dealing with the mutated virus:
The aim is to contain people from the UK as much as possible.
Increased sequencing is intended to find out how widespread the mutated virus is in Germany.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach speaks of an "important early warning system".
He says: “If our fears about the higher contagion of the mutated virus are confirmed, a catastrophe threatens.
Then the current measures would not be enough to prevent the virus from spreading rapidly. "
Daycare centers and schools will
remain closed for the time being.
In the event of relaxation, the educational institutions should be there from the start.
And each parent should be entitled to ten additional days of
child sickness
benefit
.
The federal and state governments urge companies to »
create
generous
home office
options«.
In the
future,
when
entering from risk areas
, there will be
compulsory testing in
addition to quarantine
.
The test can be taken within 48 hours before or immediately after entry.
The group will meet again on January 25th.
Until then, one mistake is unlikely to be repeated: to stir up expectations that are too high.
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