A smooth summit?
Almost - pressure from the Chancellor was obviously necessary.
Meanwhile, Markus Söder throws himself into chancellor pose, Armin Laschet reveals a problem.
And new adversity is already looming.
At their Corona summit on Sunday (December 13), Chancellor Angela Merkel * and the Prime Minister agreed on new corona pandemic * measures for Germany.
Apparently the seemingly smooth meeting was preceded by pressure from the Chancellery.
The appearance of CSU boss Markus Söder subsequently caused a stir.
But despite the new unity, politics in Germany is already threatened with new hardships.
Update from December 14th, 4:45 p.m.: Greens
and
leftists
support the
nationwide lockdown in
principle, but call for additional measures.
Not enough has been done, especially for students and their parents.
"For parents in particular, it is extremely important that the next few days are not totally chaotic," said
Annalena Baerbock
of the
Greens
on Monday in Berlin.
"That is why I think it is essential that what has been agreed - to keep daycare centers and schools open, but to free children from face-to-face classes - is implemented in this way, and that we do not start to
switch
to
emergency care
in individual locations
."
Baerbock
sees the danger that some groups in
emergency counseling could
even get larger instead of smaller.
Update from December 14th, 10:25 am:
"I think a comprehensive relaxation is very, very unlikely," said
Chancellor Helge Braun
.
He made little hope of quick, far-reaching
easing
, he said in the program "Frühstart" from RTL and ntv.
January and February are particularly difficult months, said
Braun
, referring to
respiratory infections
during this period.
I wish and I hope that people only get what they really need in terms of food.
Helge Braun, Head of the Chancellery
After the end of the
lockdown
,
schools
and
daycare centers should
be the first to open again.
“We always
said that.
This is the last thing we close and the first thing we open.
Education has priority, and it stays that way, ”says
Helge Braun
.
An emergency care for children of parents with
system-related professions
should already during the
lockdown
as the spring one
emergency care
giving.
Helge Braun in "ntv Frühstart": "Comprehensive easing in January unlikely" https://t.co/M9wTZaRvxC
- ntv news (@ntvde) December 14, 2020
Corona lockdown after Merkel summit: New measures for Germany - Peter Altmaier with warning
Get the last Christmas presents quickly.
For
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier
(CDU) not a good idea before the
lockdown on Wednesday
.
"I wish and I hope that people only get the bare minimum of food they really need," said Altmaier on Sunday at
Bild Live
.
"The sooner we get these infections under control, the better it is for
everyone."
Christmas lockdown is coming: Opposition criticizes the summit with Angela Merkel
The opposition agrees to the
tightening of the corona measures
- but is critical of long-term planning.
"Corona won't leave us on January 10th - it's naive to believe in something like that," said FDP General Secretary
Volker Wissing
on
Deutschlandfunk.
"I would like that we don't think about a new strategy in Germany every few weeks on how to deal with
Corona
, but that something is started now that will last a few months."
Anton Hofreiter
, leader of the Greens, agreed to the criticism.
He
emphasized to
the
Rheinische Post
: “For the next few months we need planned action and a long-term perspective.
I expect that in January we will finally pass a law with a nationwide binding phased plan that makes it clear when and where which measures apply. "
Corona in Germany: Merkel and Prime Minister join forces - Christmas lockdown is coming
+
Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel at the press conference in the Federal Chancellery after the Corona summit on Sunday with the Prime Ministers of the federal states.
© Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
First report from December 13th, 10 p.m .:
Berlin - no dispute.
Unity and apparently smooth decision-making: In view of the dramatic number of cases, the Chancellor and the countries at their
Corona summit on Sunday
for perhaps the first time in the
virus crisis achieved
a real solidarity.
The
Christmas lockdown
is coming - but the demands could hardly be ignored.
But the
debate about the pandemic measures
will probably not end there.
Several questions remain unanswered: Will the steps be enough to reduce the still rising number of infections?
What if not?
Does the new harmony possibly even open the gates for legal action?
Meanwhile, the opposition is putting its finger into an open wound -
the long-term corona concept that the governments promised long weeks ago is
still pending in
Germany
.
Corona lockdown: New measures for Germany - Merkel is putting pressure on internally
The most important
results of the Sunday Corona summit
can be summarized more or less succinctly: Large parts of the retail sector are expected to close their doors on Wednesday by January.
The long sought
-after Christmas easing
* will be cut significantly.
School operations are to be cut back sharply.
And
there is new help
for the
economy
.
It already seems clear: overnight, possible successes of the measures will not show.
Chancellor Angela Merkel
(CDU) said that she expected the
numbers to rise “about ten days”
- by then, infections that have already occurred will show through in the statistics.
That could mean that
the effect of the new rules will be visible
on
Christmas Eve
.
Or maybe not.
Merkel herself had apparently pushed for
uniform tightening
before the round
.
The
Chancellery
, it is said, is said to have made it clear: As long as there is no sufficient readiness for what is necessary, Merkel will
not
agree to
a new round with the Prime Minister
.
Too often, the Chancellor has had to experience that her demands were negotiated down because there was great pressure to reach an agreement and her side did not want to let the negotiations break.
That shouldn't happen again.
Corona summit: Merkel's strategy for new measures worked - but the new agreement in particular could become a problem
The little rhetorical trick has apparently worked.
Even before the summit, several
prime ministers had called for
clear measures.
On Friday there was partly an outbidding competition in calls for a quick meeting.
The regional leaders
Markus Söder
(CSU, Bavaria),
Winfried Kretschmann
(Greens, Baden-Württemberg) or
Michael Kretschmer
(CDU, Saxony) even made “advance payments” with their own regulations.
In less affected countries such as Lower Saxony, the defense against nationwide measures quickly crumbled.
Paradoxically, this could be doomed - as at least one renowned
constitutional lawyer
fears.
Despite the new Infection Protection Act *,
the specific order of the state or municipality is always decisive
for
courts
when examining the admissibility of a measure, said the
expert Ulrich Battis
the
Handelsblatt
.
He admitted lawsuits had a chance of success: A lonely stretch of land with a comparatively low incidence in
Schleswig-Holstein
could not be treated in the same way as
Berchtesgadener Land or Berlin-Kreuzberg
.
Corona in Germany leads to Christmas lockdown: next hardship looms - FDP misses the "strategy"
But even apart from this problem,
Merkel and the Prime Minister could
soon face icy headwinds.
Above all, the
FDP
pointed out a shortage on Sunday - it still misses a tangible
strategy in the fight against corona
.
It is possible that this criticism will soon spread.
Or the practical consequences of the rather short-term course are reflected in difficult solution-finding peaks.
"The government must now use the emergency brake to develop a sustainable strategy," demanded the Liberal party leader,
Christian Lindner
, in a statement in Berlin.
"Ten months of pandemic and there is still no fundamental strategy of what to do under what circumstances," added
party vice Michael Theurer
in a tweet.
These objections are not new.
But they still seem very topical.
10 months pandemic and there is still no fundamental strategy of what to do under what circumstances.
Ad hoc measures are still taking place - this cannot continue.
https://t.co/3LkjaIUWSh
- Michael Theurer (@EUTheurer) December 13, 2020
Corona: Söder practices the chancellor pose - Laschet openly reveals a problem
It doesn't help that
NRW Prime Minister and CDU candidate for chairmanship, Armin Laschet
, spoke openly on Sunday about a political problem that, in his opinion, is difficult to solve.
The
pandemic
taught: Any
forecast
that is aligned over four weeks "goes wrong", he said.
"It usually turned out differently than the experts advised and than we ourselves also specified in our regulations."
Söder
, who spoke at the press conference that day for almost twice as long as the Chancellor and was very supportive of the state, actually already in the style of a candidate for Chancellor - "Dear Sir or Madam, dear fellow citizens" - and later
speech to
almost all relevant
TV stations
and answer stood, but warned against being too optimistic.
The
lockdown is
planned for January 10th.
But he also said explicitly: “As long as it takes.
Corona does not adhere to the dates of the Prime Minister's Conference, Corona does not adhere to public holidays. ”This statement could also be interpreted as a certain lack of strategy.
(
fn with material from dpa
) *
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