The German government on Tuesday approved a toughening of its infection protection law allowing it to now impose harmonized restrictions across the country to better combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The goal is to create uniform national rules", explains a spokeswoman for the chancellery, specifying that "the country is in the middle of the third wave".
This project, which has yet to be ratified by the Bundestag, provides that beyond a threshold of 100 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants over three days, the federal state may decide to implement night curfews. , the reduction of contacts between private persons or the closure of stores deemed non-essential, indicates the chancellery.
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Covid-19: Germany wants to toughen health legislation to be able to impose measures on the whole country
This reform will make it possible to override, if necessary, regional or local resistance in this country to the federal system which gives important prerogatives in health matters to the Länder.
The initiative comes as the government and the powerful regions have been reflecting for several weeks an image of divisions and procrastination in the management of the health crisis.
The rules of federalism have shown their limits
Angela Merkel has been defending a firm line on restrictions for months, but she recently had to give up a little ballast in the face of the discontent of part of public opinion and regional states.
The long regular sessions of negotiations between the Chancellor and the 16 Länder, imposed by the rules of federalism, have recently shown their limits.
Yesterday, the total number of infections in Germany slightly exceeded the threshold of three million cases of infections (3,011 million precisely) since the start of the pandemic, or 13,245 more than the day before.
From now on, the national incidence rate over the last 7 days, particularly monitored by the authorities, stands at 136.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, ie above the threshold triggering in principle a tightening of restrictions.
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In this context, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke again over the weekend, during a meeting of deputies from her conservative party, in favor of a strict form of national reconfinement for a fairly short period.