Icon: enlarge
"Pacified district": Police officers on Wednesday morning in front of the Bundestag in Berlin
Photo:
CHRISTIAN MANG / REUTERS
The Infection Protection Act serves as the basis for far-reaching measures by the federal government against the corona pandemic - and has met with a lot of criticism in the past.
A new version of the Bundestag and Bundesrat is to be decided on Wednesday, in a fast-track process.
The aim of the change is above all to legally underpin measures to combat pandemics that have so far been adopted by the government by ordinance and thus to create more legal certainty.
At 12 noon, the Bundestag will first discuss the draft of the CDU / CSU and SPD coalition groups in the second and third reading and then vote.
The Federal Council will then also decide on this in a special meeting at 3 p.m.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will possibly draft the law on the same day so that it can come into force.
The Infection Protection Act had already been reformed several times in the wake of the corona pandemic.
Right at the beginning of the spring, it was introduced that the Bundestag can determine an epidemic situation of national importance.
At the time, Parliament did this immediately, giving the Ministry of Health special powers to issue statutory ordinances - without the consent of the Federal Council.
Usually this is required for government regulations.
The state of the epidemic is still in place today, but the Bundestag can end it at any time.
In the run-up to the planned amendment, however, not only the type of legislative procedure aroused sharp criticism, but also the content of the new regulation met with resistance in some cases.
The most important aspects at a glance:
What exactly does the change in the law do?
With the amendment to the law, a new paragraph 28a will be inserted into the law.
It lists in detail which protective measures can be prescribed by state governments and competent authorities to contain the pandemic.
These include: distance requirements, exit and contact restrictions in private and public spaces, the restriction or prohibition of overnight stays, travel, cultural, sport and leisure events, the closing of shops or the requirement to wear a mask in public spaces.
Essentially, these are the measures that were already taken during the lockdown in spring and some of them also apply now during the partial shutdown in November.
With the reform, however, they are now also anchored in law.
In the past it was often criticized that the ordinance would encroach on the fundamental rights of citizens for an indefinite period of time.
Now it is stipulated that such ordinances are to be limited in time.
In principle, they should be valid for four weeks.
However, it can be extended.
In addition, the regulations must be provided with a general justification.
Among other things, new rules are planned for loss of earnings.
For example, compensation claims for parents who cannot work because of childcare are to be extended and expanded until March 2021.
Anyone who makes an "avoidable trip" to foreign risk areas, on the other hand, should not receive any compensation for loss of earnings in the event of a quarantine required after return.
The federal government should be able to regulate that uninsured persons are also entitled to vaccinations and tests.
Hospitals that suspend operations should receive financial compensation.
Why is the opposition criticizing the project?
The opposition considers the new regulations to be insufficiently defined and therefore constitutionally questionable.
It also lacks parliaments' stronger participation rights.
And she criticizes the rapid pace at which the law is supposed to be passed.
The government's draft law continues the concentration of decision-making power in the house of Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), said left leader Katja Kipping.
According to parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch, the left does not want to agree to the draft.
The FDP has also announced this.
"For us, the government's room for maneuver when it comes to encroaching on fundamental rights is still too great," said parliamentary group leader Christian Lindner (read an interview with the FDP chairman here).
The AfD also sharply criticized the plans.
The Green politician Dieter Janecek complained that the regulations remained "as legally indefinite and imprecise as the previous legal situation."
However, parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt announced on Wednesday morning that her MPs would vote for the reform.
"Of course it came very late, of course it was hectic in the last few meters, but you still have to say: It really is a real legal basis for the measures now," said Göring-Eckardt the broadcasters RTL and n-tv.
The states co-governed by the Greens also want to agree in the Federal Council.
What else happened in the run-up to the voting?
Many MPs have been inundated by a flood of critical spam e-mails in the past few days and have been asked to prevent the new law.
His office alone had received around 37,000 such emails by Tuesday morning, reported CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt.
The vast majority have identical passages in the text.
Who is behind it cannot be clarified.
The FDP and the Greens also reported something similar.
The criticism from opponents of the state corona policy culminates in the accusation that the amendment is an "enabling law".
The democracy is allegedly overridden, the path to dictatorship is taken.
The opponents are alluding to the Enabling Act of the National Socialists of 1933, with which the Reichstag disempowered itself and transferred the legislation to Adolf Hitler.
Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD), among others, strictly rejected this comparison on Twitter: “Completely regardless of whether you think it is correct: The corona measures that we are adopting have nothing to do with the Enabling Act.
Anyone who makes such infamous comparisons mocks the victims of National Socialism and shows that they learn nothing from history. ”Representatives of other parties who are critical of the reform also rejected the comparison.
Which protests have been announced?
Icon: enlarge
The first protesters gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate on Wednesday morning
Photo:
Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Several demonstrations against the resolutions are planned for Wednesday morning in Berlin.
According to the police, 4,000 participants were registered.
In the immediate vicinity of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, the so-called "pacified districts", the Federal Ministry of the Interior has banned twelve demonstrations.
Icon: The mirror
mes / dpa
