Today we are concerned with the question of when the nationwide hard lockdown that is announced over Christmas will come.
We look to Switzerland, whose pandemic concept is puzzling, and to Brussels, where Ursula von der Leyen and Boris Johnson meet for a Brexit dinner.
Silent night, silent weeks
The signs from politics are unmistakable: Germany is facing a
tougher shutdown
.
"The Hammer and the Dance" is the name of a concept from epidemiology: The "hammer" is used to press the numbers so that you can dance again afterwards.
It worked in the spring: in retrospect, the German summer was a long dance - but then the numbers rose again, stagnated despite the current shutdown or even rose again.
And that's why the hammer is now returning.
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Shopping street in the run-up to Christmas in Duisburg
Photo: Jochen Tack / imago images / Jochen Tack
In most federal states, there is a lively
mess of measures
.
After the tightening in Bavaria, Saxony has now taken even more dramatic measures: Schools, shops and daycare centers will close on Monday, and there is a mask requirement in public - an answer to the exploding numbers in the state.
The National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina is now calling for a "hard lockdown" over the holidays and the turn of the year.
Compulsory schooling is to be lifted
from Monday
, and from December 24th to at least January 10th,
"public life in all of Germany is to be largely suspended"
.
In addition, all shops should close, except for "daily needs", vacation trips and larger gatherings should be banned and social contacts should be reduced to a minimum.
The virologist Christian Drosten describes the paper in his podcast on NDR-Info as a
“clear and final warning from science”
.
If politics decides against these concrete recommendations, "then politics has no longer decided in favor of science".
It is known that the highest executive politician at the federal level is very fond of science and also generally decides in favor of it - the only question is whether the Prime Ministers will follow the Chancellor.
But the probability that Germany will withdraw into corona hibernation over the Christmas holidays and into January is high.
Originally the solution was that Christmas had to be saved - but now it looks more like the silent night is being expanded into silent weeks.
Germany threatens hard lockdown: nice mess
Switzerland is doing a bit of a shutdown
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A policeman checks the mask requirement on the Verbier ski slope
Photo: Jean-Christophe Bott / dpa
Even in a state that must appear like a parallel universe from German eyes, because the number of infections there is twice as high as in Germany, while restaurants and ski slopes are still open: in my home country,
Switzerland
.
Switzerland is characterized by liberalism, state interventions are viewed more critically than in Germany, federalism is even more pronounced than in the northern neighboring country.
I know this political tradition very well - but I no longer fully understand Switzerland in this pandemic.
The country was recently on the way to a second Sweden - the
number of cases has been among the highest in the world for weeks,
the restrictions were minimal.
It seemed a bit as if a belief in invulnerability had taken possession of the land, which history can easily explain (it is 173 years since the last war).
Nevertheless, it is strange: The full intensive care units and the high number of deaths in comparison to other European countries seem to have hardly moved politicians so far - at least less than concerns about the economic well-being of ski areas, which were allowed to open almost without restrictions, and the anger about the temporary emigration of the Davoser World Economic Forum WEF to Singapore.
Many Swiss cantons, especially in the German-speaking part, did not take any effective measures despite repeated requests from the federal government.
Therefore, the country is already threatened with a third wave (although the second wave was never really broken).
Now the Swiss government wants to take action for the first time since the spring - at least by country-typical conditions: restaurants and shops have to close at 7 p.m., only five people from two households are allowed to meet.
If that doesn't work, restaurants and shops could close completely from December 18th.
The Neue Züricher Zeitung (NZZ) is already complaining that this encroachment on the competences of the cantons is "not the fine federal kind."
After all, essential facilities such as ski lifts will of course remain open.
Winter sports in Switzerland: "We never considered not coming"
Boris and Ursula's Brexit dinner
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Will it hit today too?
Boris Johnson with Ursula von der Leyen (here in January 2020)
Photo: Rob Pinney / imago images / ZUMA Press
It is once again a meeting of the last, very last or maybe very last chance: In any case,
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are meeting
for dinner
today in Brussels
.
The aim is to try to save the deadlocked talks about a Brexit deal - but Boris Johnson is primarily faced with a choice: If he wants to slam the door and present himself to his base as a hero who will keep the nationalist Brexit ideology to the end has represented?
Or does he accept the fact that Great Britain cannot afford a no deal economically - and does it eventually?
There will always be distortions at the borders at the turn of the year - deal or no deal.
The EU can afford to wait and keep the door open for a deal with the British, if necessary even beyond the turn of the year.
The relationship with Great Britain is too important for the EU to not always have a very last chance.
Therefore: Today's meeting is important for optics, but
the final decision does not have to be made today
.
Brexit meeting with Ursula von der Leyen: Johnson's risky Brussels trip
Loser of the day ...
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Donald Trump (archive image)
Photo: Oliver Contreras / POOL / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
... is
Donald Trump
, who pulled up a slap in front of the US Supreme Court for his attempt to have the election results of the state of Pennsylvania annulled - with a reason that can only be translated with the words: »I am an anti-democrat and a bad loser «.
The judges dismissed the lawsuit with nine votes to zero.
Firstly, they buried the dreams of the Trump camp that a conservatively dominated Supreme Court would keep the president in office - and at the same time invalidated the conspiracy theories in the left camp, according to which such a Supreme Court would be easily capable of a coup.
The latest news from the night
Judge acquits Michael Flynn - and condemns Trump's pardon:
At the end of November Donald Trump pardoned his former advisor Flynn, and now a judge had to implement this directive.
He found clear words in the direction of the still president
Biden announces 100-day program against Corona:
Joe Biden wants to make the fight against the virus a top priority.
The upcoming US President has announced an ambitious plan - which he wants to implement immediately after taking office
IT security company FireEye is itself a target for hackers:
FireEye usually helps US authorities fight cyberattacks.
Now the specialists themselves have been hacked
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I wish you a good start to the day.
Your Mathieu von Rohr
