Merkel calls for new restrictions in Germany: "Paying a daily price of 590 dead is not acceptable"

An unusually emotional German Chancellor.

Angela Merkel addressed the Bundestag (the federal Parliament) on Wednesday in an intervention in which she once again called on citizens to be prudent, to reduce the number of interpersonal contacts as much as possible with the aim of curbing the death toll that continues to grow as a result of the pandemic.

Germany is unable to reduce the number of COVID-19 infections, despite the restrictions imposed five weeks ago.

"I am sorry from the bottom of my heart, but when we pay the price of 590 deaths in 24 hours, in my opinion it is not acceptable," he said, referring to the clusters of people who drink mulled wine in the street these days.

Merkel implored restraint in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.

"Scientists are begging us to reduce contacts for a week before going to visit grandparents," he started.

“What will we say when we look back on this unique historical episode in a century?

If we have too many contacts before Christmas and at the end, it turns out that it is the last Christmas with the grandparents, we will have done something wrong.

We must not let it happen, "said the chancellor, usually not very expressive, but visibly moved this Wednesday.

Merkel asked that all contacts that are not essential be reduced.

Faced with the

that nests in the German extreme right, the leader of the German center-right has categorically defended the role of science, even appealing to her past in the German Democratic Republic.

"I decided to study physics in the GDR, (...) because I was sure that many things can be overcome, but not gravity, or the speed of light, or other facts," Merkel told Parliament.

With the vaccine, he argued, you can "see the light at the end of the tunnel," but warned that the change in the immune situation of the population will not be decisive in the first three months of next year.

The federal government and the states agreed five weeks ago a partial closure of public life, which, however, has not yet produced the expected results.

Bars and restaurants remain closed, as well as leisure and cultural activities.

The number of infections in the last 24 hours amounts to 20,815;

a figure that is not reduced despite the restrictions.

The incidence rises to 149.1 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last seven days, which is much higher than the threshold of 50 set as a limit by the political and health authorities.

The 590 deaths on Tuesday are added to the total of 19,932 people who have died since the beginning of the epidemic.

Germany overcame the so-called first wave with relative success, but this second is hitting the country of 83 million people hard.

In Germany there has been no strict confinement since the beginning of the epidemic, unlike those imposed in countries such as Spain or France.

The increase in figures in recent weeks does, however, raise fears of a tightening of the restrictions as of January.

Merkel is expected to meet with the heads of government of the 16

in the next few days

to agree on new limitations on public life.

The measures could include the closure of businesses, until now open, and limiting school activity, which for now has not been affected.

Merkel justified the massive disbursement of public money in Germany, a country with aversion to debt, because she recalled: “We live in a pandemic, we live in an exceptional situation.