Germany has been in corona lockdown for weeks.
Companies should be supported with help.
Only: there is a problem.
Economy Minister Altmaier fails with an appeasement.
Business associations and the opposition criticize the Corona * aid as too complicated and bureaucratic.
Economy Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU *) spoke in the
picture
talk about the slow payout.
His statements lead to anger - even Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) is said to be angry.
Berlin - “First of all, I apologize for the fact that it is taking so long.
If I had seen any way to speed it up, I would have done it. ”Peter Altmaier's pardon was in matters of Corona aid - with a reproach to the federal states.
They would not have seen themselves in a position to administer the November and December aid, said the CDU Minister of Economic Affairs * on Sunday in a live talk from
Bild
.
Therefore a platform had to be "stamped out of the ground".
Merkel is said to have criticized Altmaier and Scholz for Corona aid
Altmaier has to take it now.
Chancellor Angela Merkel * (CDU) is said to be "seriously annoyed", as
Bild
now wants to know from internal circles.
You "do not understand why the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance still have not got it with the help" and because "still has to be programmed", Merkel is said to have said.
Economics Minister Volker Wissing (Rhineland-Palatinate) *, on the other hand, directly to the
picture
: “A cheek!
The responsibility for the late software development lies exclusively with the federal government, ”said the FDP * politician.
In addition, the newspaper quotes Hamburg's Senator for Finance Andreas Dressel (SPD *): "The federal states are only activated at the very end to make the actual payout."
Video: Little hope of rapid corona easing
Corona aid under the Altmaier Ministry is intended to cushion lockdown consequences
According to the Ministry of Economics, more than 80 billion euros in corona aid have been approved since the beginning of the crisis, plus short-time work benefits of around 23 billion euros.
In the November and December aid, around 5.2 billion euros were paid out in funds.
These aids are aimed primarily at companies in lockdown *; lost sales are reimbursed.
Bridging aid III is the core instrument of economic aid.
Fixed operating costs such as rent or electricity are reimbursed.
The finance and economics ministries had decided to expand the aid, and the complex application system is to be simplified.
Applications for advance payments should be possible soon, as it was said.
And how much help will be needed in the future?
At the Corona summit on February 10, a lockdown extension will presumably be decided until the end of the month.
One reason: Merkel has been warning of the virus mutations * for a long time.
The virologist Melanie Brinkmann (in
Spiegel
) and SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach (in an interview with M
Erkur.de
*) also alert the mutants.
Brazil, Great Britain, Ireland *, Portugal and South Africa are therefore currently considered mutation areas in Germany *.
Corona mutation: Virologist Stöhr contradicts Lauterbach and Brinkmann
"If we open with a step-by-step plan," we can also take countermeasures in the event of an unforeseen increase, "said epidemologist Klaus Stöhr to
Bild
- and explained:" For the idea that the number of cases is increasing explosively because of the variant and can no longer be controlled I lack the causal derivation and scientific evidence. "
As evidence, the ex-head of the influenza program of the WHO cited falling corona case numbers in Ireland and England, where mutations are spreading.
“The properties of the virus have not changed so significantly that it can no longer be combated,” Stöhr is certain.
Epidemologist Stöhr calls for a step-by-step lockdown plan: "It's not news either"
That is why he is now calling for an independent committee of experts - from different disciplines who "evaluate the most varied of positions and then come to the politicians with a common opinion".
Stöhr said that one day before the Corona summit in the ZDF's “Morgenmagazin”.
Stöhr warned that “individuals” dominate the debate.
At the moment, the opinions of many colleagues from the fields of virology, hospital hygiene or infectious diseases are “obviously not heard”.
"Such a predictable plan is not news either, these are things that have been discussed for many decades in the fight against pandemics." Stöhr is co-founder of the "Corona Strategy" working group, which advocates a step-by-step plan for corona easing.
(frs with material from AFP) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital editorial network.