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Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer
Photo:
Peter Endig / dpa
What is going wrong and what has gone wrong in Saxony - a lot has been written about it.
The state was hit particularly hard by the second corona wave in autumn.
The number of infections has been very high for weeks, there are significantly more Covid 19 deaths per inhabitant than in other federal states.
Now Michael Kretschmer, the CDU Prime Minister of the country, has admitted errors in the Corona crisis management.
In autumn, due to the general mood, state politics were too hesitant to react to the pandemic with tough measures, the CDU politician told the Chemnitz "Free Press".
"I would have liked to have been warned earlier"
In retrospect, it would have been better to shut down the country much earlier, "even if that would certainly have resulted in a lot of incomprehension among the population."
He himself only became aware of the seriousness of the situation after visiting several hospitals in Pirna, Görlitz, Aue and Bischofswerda in December.
"After we understood the situation, we acted immediately," said Kretschmer.
"I would have liked to have been warned earlier."
Ramelow: "The Chancellor was right and I was wrong."
Previously, Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left) had admitted mistakes.
He regrets his earlier resistance to tougher measures to contain the corona pandemic, he told the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung".
He is annoyed that in November he was internally not ready to say: "We use December with its many public holidays nationwide for a general break." Everything that is not essential or systemically cannot be stopped would have been stopped for four weeks have to.
In the summer and autumn, Ramelow had opposed stronger restrictions.
In retrospect, that was wrong, he told the newspaper.
For too long he had been "guided by the false hope" that a soft lockdown could break the wave.
"The Chancellor kept saying it very clearly, but among the prime ministers no one really wanted to hear it - neither did I," said Ramelow.
The constant reminders from Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) "felt to be a nuisance".
But today he had to say: "The Chancellor was right and I was wrong."
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hda / dpa / AFP