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Chancellor on her way to work.
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Michael Kappeler / dpa
This pandemic is also a major déjà vu.
The worries, events, discussions, objections and phases repeat themselves.
In the spring of 2020 it was said: We'll drag ourselves until Easter, prefer and extend holidays, be disciplined for a few weeks, and then let's see.
Because the first wave was comparatively small, the uncertainty was great and the discipline was therefore also greater, the numbers fell noticeably.
In late autumn, in the second wave, it was said: We'll drag ourselves until Christmas, prefer holidays, we'll be disciplined for a few weeks.
And then let's see.
How does it look like?
The number of infections does not decrease noticeably.
They may even rise.
Due to the data situation, this cannot yet be said exactly.
In addition, there is concern about the new, more contagious virus variant B.1.1.7.
On the one hand, the new, tightened lockdown rules are now coming into force.
Very many people are not even allowed to move more than 15 kilometers from their place of residence.
On the other hand, working life starts again after the turn of the year, the quiet phase ended with Dreikönig at the latest, some schools open.
People are allowed in the office, and in the factory hall anyway.
Politics is also picking up again, the Bundestag is facing its first week of session in the new year.
It is spit in the hands again, despite the pandemic.
Because of this strange simultaneity, because of this tough but half-hearted lockdown, a debate has broken out about all three areas of life.
Again at the last second.
Schools and daycare centers
Schools and daycare centers should remain closed as much as possible, according to an agreement between the federal and state governments.
But there are exceptions, quite a few possible exceptions, some for exams and final classes, for emergency care anyway.
The fact that digital teaching is still so inadequate should contribute to this.
The goal still seems to be to return to face-to-face teaching, only the timing is shifting again and again due to the infection situation and political pressure.
Hessen, for example, is planning to have final classes in the classroom and the option of face-to-face classes from 1st to 6th grade.
Bremen wants to reopen schools to those who want or have to because their parents go to work.
The staff council schools in Bremen criticized this sharply.
Berlin wanted to reopen its schools for final classes from Monday and even gradually switch to face-to-face classes.
But after severe criticism from teachers' associations, unions, schools and parents, the Senate had to move away from it at short notice.
Home office
While private life and leisure are regulated and restaurant operators, artists, hairdressers and shopkeepers are in fact unable to work, work is allowed wherever the world of work does not come into contact with customers, including in factories and open-plan offices.
Working from home is only recommended.
As if the virus works differently when everyone around is working hard for wages.
It has been like this for a long time, the government does not seem to want to change that, but the discussion now seems to have really reached politics.
The leader of the Greens, Katrin Göring-Eckardt, said: "We need a Corona occupational health and safety ordinance that obliges companies to offer home office wherever possible." If necessary, pressure must be imposed with fines.
»Even in the world of work, any avoidable contact must be restricted.
Kind requests to employers are not enough here.
There must be binding conditions here, which are also enforced with controls and fines, "said left leader Katja Kipping to SPIEGEL.
"The findings of the natural sciences must not be ignored where they meet business interests."
"Especially in the lockdown, home office should be made possible wherever operationally possible," said the labor market policy spokesman for the FDP, Johannes Vogel, the SPIEGEL.
"The political debate must not ignore the core of the failures." Above all, there is a lack of up-to-date rules for home offices: "Instead, millions of companies and employees are pushed into legal gray areas."
Employer President Rainer Dulger spoke out against restrictions for companies.
Bundestag
The Bundestag will also resume work in its first week of session in the new year.
It is expected: 709 MPs from all over the republic, whose work includes talking to as many people as possible, will meet indoors.
In addition, employees, Bundestag staff, journalists.
Even if the week is shortened, there is no Friday, the parliamentary groups meet digitally, even if the Bundestag has a very special status as a representative body - parliament remains a high-risk location.
Is it responsible for a week of meetings?
Elisabeth Motschmann (CDU) raised this question.
In return, she negotiated opposition from the Greens and a rude rebuff from FDP Bundestag deputy Wolfgang Kubicki, who said that one saw how much one in the Union "understands the role of the nod of government decrees" and let them know that she could Stay at home.
But the plans are not undisputed and the roles are not always distributed equally.
In the toll investigation committee, for example, three meeting days are scheduled for this week.
Then dozens of MPs, employees and journalists sometimes spend a whole day in a poorly ventilated meeting room.
The FDP politician Christian Jung considers this to be grossly negligent.
"The health of the witnesses, those taking the minutes, of employees of the committee secretariat and the parliamentary groups as well as of us MEPs would be exposed to a completely unnecessary increased risk through the planned implementation," he said and pleaded for a postponement to February.
Oliver Krischer, Vice-President of the Greens parliamentary group and member of the committee of inquiry, also accuses the coalition of pushing through the meetings for political reasons.
"Three sessions of 14 hours or more represent a much higher risk of infection. Up to now, one session per week has been common," he told SPIEGEL.
There is absolutely no need to end the polls in January.
"The audacity with which the Union and the SPD are exploiting the pandemic and at the same time accepting the risk of contagion in order to hide the embarrassing questioning about Andi Scheuer's failure is breathtaking," said Krischer.
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