The corona spread also restricts politicians. For the time being, the CDU party congress and election campaign are falling flat. A head of state is waiting for test results.
- The corona virus also restricts politicians. Seehofer remains at home after contact with a suspected corona case.
- The Italian President of the European Commission, Sassoli, has been put in quarantine because of the orders of his state government.
- SPD politician Karl Lauterbach is currently in domestic isolation.
Update, March 14, 5:08 p.m .: Former NATO Secretary General Javier Solana has contracted the new corona virus. The 77-year-old is being treated in a hospital in Madrid, but is starting to feel better, a source close to the Spanish politician told AFP on Saturday. Solana was hospitalized on Wednesday for Covid 19 disease.
"I'm feeling better," Solana replied to the US politician Strobe Talbott, who had sent the 77-year-old his recovery wishes on the online service Twitter. From 1995 to 1999, Solana was NATO Secretary General and from 1999 to 2009 EU foreign policy officer .
Update, March 14, 7:33 a.m .: At first only Bolsonaros communication secretary Wajngarten showed flu symptoms when he returned. At least four members of Brazil's delegation to President Trump have now tested positive for the corona virus.
Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro is said to undergo another test for the coronavirus * - he had initially said that his first test had been negative. The protocol stipulates that this examination will be carried out in up to seven days. Bolsonaro is expected to remain in isolation at the Alvorada Palace in Brasília, where he lives with wife Michelle and daughter Laura.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry was the victim of a curious prank. The Royal suspected Greta on the phone - and then blithely blasphemed about Donald Trump.
Corona virus in the US: Trump met Bolsonaro - New information from Brazil
Update of March 13, 2020, 11:00 p.m .: North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet considers it possible that the decision about the CDU chairmanship will only be made after the summer break. Laschet is one of three applicants. The party canceled the special party convention originally planned for this on April 25 because of the corona epidemic. "At some point it will take place, maybe even after the summer holidays," said Laschet on Friday evening on ZDF. "We now have to join forces to work in this crisis."
He is currently "relatively little interested in the candidacy," said Laschet. “No one is interested in this question at the moment. People want you to take care of this crisis. "
Update of March 13, 2020, 8:30 p.m .: US President Donald Trump declared the national emergency in the face of the corona crisis. This would free up funds of up to $ 50 billion, Trump recently said at a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House.
Corona virus in the US: Trump met Bolsonaro - New information from Brazil
Update of March 13, 2020, 6:05 p.m .: Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has reportedly tested negative for the novel corona virus . The responsible hospital and laboratory had submitted a negative test result, it said on Friday in an entry on the Facebook page of the right-wing extremist leader. The information was accompanied by a photo showing Bolsonaro with an insulting motion of a forearm raised.
It had previously become known that Bolsonaro's chief communications officer, Fabio Wajngarten, tested positive for the pathogen after returning from a meeting with US President Donald Trump at his Florida home with Bolsonaro. Wajngarten had accompanied Bolsonaro to a dinner with Trump in Florida last Saturday.
Shaking hands with consequences? President Trump met with Brazil's infected head of state
Update of March 13, 2020, 3.15 p.m .: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for the corona virus. Focus.de reports this referring to several Brazilian media. Bolsonaro had met with US President Donald Trump at his golf club in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, a few days ago. His chief of communication, Wajngarten , who was infected with the corona virus , was there. To date, Trump does not want to be tested.
Handshake with consequences? Brazilian President Bolsonaro met Donald Trump - now he has tested positive for Corona.
© picture alliance / dpa / Alex Brandon
Corona virus exacerbates government crisis in Romania - Prime Minister has to be quarantined
Update of March 13, 2020, 2:55 p.m .: Romania's Prime Minister Ludovic Orban goes into quarantine after contact with a senator infected with the corona virus. "I will be in isolation, but I will continue to carry out my duties," said Orban. The 56-year-old head of an interim government, like all ministers, is now to be tested on Covid-19 .
Video: corona virus - what does quarantine mean for those affected?
The entire government may be quarantined . According to the report, the head of government , most of the members of his cabinet and all senators attended a meeting on Monday, which also included the politician infected with the corona virus .
The head of government is quarantined in the midst of a political crisis in Romania : head of state Klaus Iohannis should appoint a new head of government after consultations with the individual parties on Friday. In early February, the parliament in Bucharest overthrew Orban's pro-European minority government after only three months in office by a vote of no confidence.
Coronavirus: Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil can get out of quarantine again
Update of March 13, 2020, 11:39 am: A corona test by Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) has produced a negative result. "There is no infection found," said a spokeswoman for Heils in Berlin on Friday. Heil underwent the test after contacting an infected person.
The minister should have spoken in the Bundestag on Friday to expand short-time benefits, but was represented by Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) . The Bundestag approved the law in an urgent procedure, the approval of the Bundesrat was expected in Friday.
Coronavirus: Australian Home Secretary infected
Update of March 13, 2020, 8:20 a.m .: A few days after returning from meetings with US Presidential Advisor Ivanka Trump and US Attorney General William Barr in Washington, Australian Interior Minister Peter Dutton has tested positive for the novel corona virus. He was quarantined with a fever and sore throat in a hospital, Dutton said on Friday.
The minister was in Washington a few days ago for a meeting of the FiveEyes intelligence alliance from Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, which also included Secretary of Justice Barr. During the visit, he also met with the daughter of US President Donald Trump . A photo distributed by the Australian embassy in Washington shows how Dutton and Ivanka Trump are close together. The Trump administration's inadequate crisis management is causing increasing criticism worldwide, which ZDF editor-in-chief Peter Frey joins in with drastic words.
At first it was unclear when and where the minister became infected with the virus.
Corona virus slows down politics: in quarantine
Update of March 13, 2020, 6.56 a.m .: The wife of the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been infected with the novel corona virus. Sophie Grégoire Trudeau's test was positive, the prime minister's office said on Thursday (local time). But she is fine. The Prime Minister is "in good health" and shows no symptoms. A test with him is not planned. As a precaution, however, he would observe a 14-day quarantine.
A few hours earlier, Trudeau's office had announced that the head of government and his wife had quarantined. The First Lady reportedly returned from a lecture tour in London with "mild flu-like symptoms".
Corona virus slows down politics: CDU and AfD cancel party congresses - head of state voluntarily goes into quarantine
Update from 8:38 p.m .: The AfD is now also canceling its federal party conference planned for the end of April. The event was planned for April 24th and 25th in Offenburg , Baden-Württemberg. According to the spokesman, the postponement was voluntary and not due to official requirements. The newspapers of the editorial network Germany first reported on the decision of the AfD board. A new date for the party congress has not yet been set.
Update 5:29 pm: For fear of the new corona virus : the Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau has quarantined himself as a precaution. The reason is that his wife Sophie Gregoire-Trudeau felt slightly cold after an event on Wednesday evening. The two therefore stay at home until the results of their corona tests are known.
The BBC reports this and quotes the following from a statement by Trudeau: He is currently working from home with a "very high degree of caution" and is monitoring his health, but is doing his everyday work. Trudeau has therefore canceled the dates for the next two days.
Update 3:46 p.m .: Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) remains at home for the time being because of contact with a person infected with the corona virus. "He has undergone a test, the result of which is still open," said a spokeswoman on Thursday in Berlin. "As a precaution, the minister has decided to work from home for now."
Shortly before, it had become known that several SPD factional politicians voluntarily went into isolation because of their proximity to another coronavirus case. At a meeting of the legal working group on March 2, an employee from the Federal Ministry of Justice was present who later tested positive for the novel corona virus, an SPD parliamentary group spokesman AFP said. As a result, several participants in the meeting stayed at home immediately.
The three candidates for the CDU chairmanship, Armin Laschet, Friedrich Merz and Norbert Röttgen , have meanwhile accepted the postponement of the CDU federal party conference as the right step. The party conference was supposed to take place on April 25 in Berlin for the election of a new chairman, but will be postponed indefinitely due to the spread of the coronavirus, as outgoing chairwoman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer announced on Thursday.
Röttgen, for example, explained: “We will soon have a completely different situation in our country and worldwide. Everyone must be guided by these new priorities. ”According to him, with the cancellation of the party congress it was agreed to suspend the party's internal campaigns for the CDU party chairmanship .
Corona virus meets politics: election of AKK successor is initially flat - CDU cancels party congress
Update 12:13: Due to the Corona crisis, the CDU postpones its special party conference planned for April 25 to elect a successor to outgoing party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer . A new date has not yet been set, as the German press agency learned on Thursday.
Kramp-Karrenbauer said on Thursday that she would recommend the postponement to the federal executive board that the party congress should only be held "as soon as the epidemic situation permits".
Corona virus reaches major politics: FDP man infected, Bundestag takes measures
Update 11.50 a.m .: The new corona virus also has an impact on the Bundestag : It has been agreed with Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) and the parliamentary directors that the Bundestag meetings should take place in the week from March 23 "according to the current status" - However, in the current week "no roll call votes", said the Union group. In addition, MEPs were advised to work from home and not as usual in the Bundestag facilities to prevent the virus from spreading, it said.
Corona virus: Member of the Bundestag infected - identity now clear, further action "not so easy"
A background to the move: An FDP MP is "demonstrably infected," as a spokesman for the AFP faction said. It is the 41-year-old Hagen Reinhold from Mecklenburg-West Pomerania , as he himself told the newspapers of the editorial network Germany . Throughout Germany, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) counted almost 1,600 corona cases and three deaths by Wednesday evening.
Coronavirus - Hagen Reinhold
© dpa / Fabian Sommer
The Corona-infected politician's employees voluntarily went into quarantine at home , the group spokesman said. Additional contacts are currently being identified. In view of the many meetings and arrangements in the parliamentary operation, this was "not so easy".
Reinhold told the RND newspapers that he had "received the positive test result from the Bundestag doctor late Wednesday afternoon". The first symptoms appeared after a skiing holiday in Austria. "After my return I coughed lightly and had the Bundestag doctor examine me on Monday."
Meanwhile, the Bundestag parties also mourn the death of a great FDP politician: Burkhard Hirsch has died.
Due to suspected coronavirus in the state parliament: Prime Minister cancels conference in Berlin
Update from March 12, 2020, 10.35 a.m .: Again a German politician cancels an important appointment out of concern about a possible corona contact : Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) is not attending the Prime Ministers' Conference this Thursday due to the corona epidemic in Berlin.
It is a precautionary measure, said the State Ministry in Stuttgart. According to this, a member of the state parliament of Baden-Württemberg had contact with a person who was tested positive for the corona virus on Wednesday evening. "That is why it is now a matter of people who were close to the MP avoiding further contacts as a precaution." It was initially unclear whether the MP was infected.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) stayed at home on Tuesday for similar reasons.
Coronavirus suspected case in politics: "The Bundestag is a high-risk area"
Update 2:24 pm: A suspected corona case has occurred in the German Bundestag. An infected person may have attended a parliamentary session. All members of parliament who had contact with the previously unknown person then withdrew from the parliament and are currently in domestic isolation. Including SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach .
Coronavirus - Spahn and Lauterbach
© dpa / Kay Nietfeld
However, the 57-year-old has no worries about having become a corona virus opera himself: "I do not assume that I have infected myself, but still go into quarantine until Sunday. Then the dangerous session was two weeks ago, ”said Lauterbach the picture .
At the same time, he emphasizes the risks of the parliament: “ The Bundestag is a high-risk area because many people come together and have previously had contact with many people. I have completely withdrawn from social life in the past few days to be a role model. That could pay off now. "
Coronavirus: Röttgen anticipates cancellation for CDU party conference
Update 9.48 a.m .: Due to the coronavirus outbreak , CDU presidential candidate Norbert Röttgen assumes that the special party convention previously planned for April 25 must be postponed to the new election of the party leader. The course of the infection in other countries suggests that "we will have a very similar situation in Germany in a few weeks," said the former Federal Environment Minister of the Augsburg General . Larger events would then no longer take place, "there will be no exceptions".
Coronavirus: Merkel invites employer representatives and unions to crisis meetings
Update of March 11, 2020, 8.09 a.m .: Chancellor Angela Merkel invites top representatives of employers and unions to a crisis meeting in the Chancellery because of the spread of the corona virus, according to a newspaper report. The conversation should take place on Friday evening, the editorial network Germany reported on Tuesday, citing government circles.
At the meeting, advice will therefore be given on “the effects of the corona virus on the German economy and possible economic countermeasures”. Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil and Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (both SPD) should also take part.
Coronavirus: Seehofer can return to Berlin
Update 8:00 p.m .: Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer (CSU) can breathe a sigh of relief: He returns to his place of work in Berlin on Wednesday - after the suspicion of coronavirus has been cleared up at a participant at the recent EU Interior Ministers' meeting . "All test results are available," Seehofer will therefore be back in Berlin on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Steve Alter, wrote on Tuesday evening on Twitter.
All test results are available. BM #Seehofer is back in #Berlin tomorrow. # COVID19 # COVID2019 https://t.co/MefcBY8hhP
- Steve Alter (@BMISpeaker) March 10, 2020Seehofer and all members of his delegation had tested negative for the Sars-CoV-2 virus after returning from the Brussels meeting. It had previously become known that a Croatian participant in the EU Interior Ministers' meeting was said to have had contact with a Sars CoV-2 infected person. The Federal Minister of the Interior therefore stayed at his place of residence in Ingolstadt at the beginning of the week. Seehofer and the contact person were in the same room during a meeting.
The federal government meanwhile wants to "intensify" controls "at the southern borders" because of the corona virus.
Coronavirus: Merkel speaks at parliamentary group meeting - police union dissatisfied with Chancellor
Update 5.17 p.m .: Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) has spoken out behind closed doors for a strict procedure by the authorities in the fight against the new corona virus . All unnecessary events should be canceled, the CDU politician said on Tuesday during the meeting of the Union faction , as the dpa learned from participants. With a view to Bundesliga soccer games without spectators, Merkel said: "Games in front of empty ranks are not the worst thing that can happen to this country."
According to participants, Merkel thanked Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) for his work. She was quoted as saying: "Jens Spahn does it really well." The MPs then gave long and loud applause. Merkel said at the meeting that it can be assumed that 60 percent of the people will be dealing with the virus (see 4:50 p.m.).
In view of the uncertainty and speculation surrounding the new type of corona virus, the police union (GdP) also wants more public leadership from Merkel. "In uncertain times, people demand transparent information, understandable guidelines and clear language from their political leadership. We should be able to expect the Chancellor to go ahead now, to show strength and to send the necessary signals, ”said Deputy GdP Chairman Jörg Radek .
He was convinced that "with a realistic assessment of the development of the disease and the consequent avoidance of scaremongering, there will be no escalation of the situation". In order for police officers in the federal and state governments to continue to ensure security and order across the country in the coming months in the event of an uncertain situation, it was important to minimize the number of avoidable occasions on which officers could become infected.
Corona virus meets politicians: Seehofer stays at home - Merkel gives drastic numbers behind closed doors
Update 4:50 p.m .: In addition to CSU politician Horst Seehofer , who is currently staying at home due to a suspected Corona case in his distant environment, Chancellor Angela Merkel is also apparently aware of the seriousness of the situation. In a meeting of the Union faction, she is said to have predicted information from world editor Robin Alexander that 60 percent of people will have something to do with the novel virus .
Merkel also fears that the corona virus will spread further. However, previous measures have not been in vain. The most effective means is now the "time factor" to prevent overloading of doctors and hospitals, for example. The spread of the virus must be slowed down - also so that science can search for a vaccine.
Corona virus: Seehofer stays at home after contact with a suspected corona case
Horst Seehofer initially stays at home in Ingolstadt because of a contact with a person suspected of having corona.
© dpa / Kay Nietfeld
First message from March 10, 2020:
Berlin / Brussels - The corona virus is rapidly developing and does not spare politicians either. Now Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer is also at least indirectly affected, although he had taken precautionary measures against infection early on and is therefore no longer shaking hands, for example. Although there is no suspicion of corona , the CSU politician remains at home in Ingolstadt for the time being because of contact with someone who may have been infected with the virus. Wait until the contact person's test result, as Seehofer spokesman Steve Alter told AFP on Tuesday. "We expect to have more clarity tonight," he announced.
Coronavirus: Seehofer was in the same room with the contact person in Brussels
Alter announced on Twitter on Monday evening that the 70-year-old Seehofer and the contact person were in the same room at a meeting in Brussels . Therefore, the minister did not return to Berlin from his place of residence in Ingolstadt on Monday. The meeting came at a meeting of EU interior ministers last week in Brussels.
The President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli , is even more affected. He remains in quarantine for two weeks because of the coronavirus *. The reason: The decision of the Italian government * to impose blocking measures across the country *. It would also affect the behavior of Italian MPs, Sassoli said. "For this reason, after I was in Italy last weekend , I made a precautionary decision to follow the measures indicated and to act as President from my place of residence in Brussels in accordance with the 14-day recommendation in the health protocol," he said further.
Corona virus: Campaign meetings in Poland were canceled due to concerns about spreading
The Coronavirus * also influences politics in Poland . The parliamentary election is due there in two months, but head of state Andrzej Duda now wants to avoid major campaign events to protect the virus from spreading further . Since these events with hundreds of participants usually take place in closed halls, the risk of spreading the corona virus is high *, said Duda at a press conference late Monday evening. "I don't want to expose people who come to these meetings to such a security risk, " he emphasized. And not only the general election in Poland is affected by the corona virus. In Iran, the run-off elections due to CoVid19 may now be postponed.
There are also the first fatalities in Poland and Mallorca. The virus continues to spread in Spain.
It is also strange that the next meeting of the EU Council of Ministers , which should deal with the effects of the coronavirus on global supply chains and trade flows, has now been canceled due to the coronavirus crisis . This was confirmed by a spokeswoman for the Croatian EU Presidency in Brussels on Tuesday.
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
Rubric list picture: © picture alliance / dpa / Alex Brandon
