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NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet
Photo: Lukas Schulze / Getty Images
The date is set for next Monday: on April 12, the prime ministers are to meet again with the chancellor and discuss how to proceed in the pandemic.
CDU boss Armin Laschet questioned this plan on Monday, in the fight against the third corona wave a hard "bridge lockdown" should be decided quickly and the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK) should be brought forward.
This should bridge the time until many people are vaccinated.
However, the response to the initiative by the North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister is not all that refreshing.
Meet somewhere?
Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD) rejected the proposal on Monday.
Too many questions are still open.
The SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz accused Laschet of not complying with the previous agreements to combat the pandemic.
In this respect, it does not help to "meet somewhere," said the Federal Minister of Finance.
Rather, the decisions that are now required must be well prepared and implemented.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) also reacted skeptically: "After the experience of the last federal-state meeting, I consider it essential that the next round is thoroughly prepared," said Dreyer.
"Buzzwords that leave more questions unanswered than they give answers, and short-term meetings with little substance are, in my opinion, not expedient."
Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil reported "considerable doubts".
Laschet's proposal leaves many questions unanswered, said the SPD politician on Tuesday.
»Does Prime Minister Laschet want to close all daycare centers including emergency care?
Does he want to shut down the economy completely?
How long and with what specific goal should the measures last?
All of this is unexplained. "
Other countries basically signaled their readiness for a quick meeting, but demanded that a concept be on the table beforehand that everyone would support.
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Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow
Photo: Bernd Elmenthaler / imago images / Bernd Elmenthaler
Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow told SPIEGEL that they would be happy to meet at any time.
"But there must be something on the table beforehand, which we then really decide together and, above all, implement all of them," emphasized the left-wing politician: "The current requests to speak are again fragmented and characterized by hectic."
According to CSU General Secretary Markus Blume, Bavaria is only in favor of bringing the talks forward if all federal states are generally ready to tighten the corona rules.
A new prime ministerial conference would not be of any use, "if afterwards everyone does theirs again," he said, "Bild".
A spokesman for the federal government assured that the federal government was "always ready for joint deliberations."
The prerequisite is "that they are well prepared".
Saar Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) wants to stick to the set date for the next federal-state consultations: "We should stick to that and take time to prepare."
Kretschmer and Bouffier support Laschet's plan
In some cases, however, Laschet also receives support from the Union.
The CDU boss was "without a doubt right," said Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) to the MDR.
"With the dynamics before Easter we will not reach the end of May without the hospitals reaching their limits." The latter is the point in time at which the vaccinations could make a "significant contribution" to reducing the incidence of infections.
Hesse's Prime Minister and CDU Federal Vice-President Volker Bouffier considers Laschet's proposals to be "sensible": "We are currently in an uncertain situation, especially since we are receiving reports nationwide that the intensive care units have less and less capacity."
An early Prime Minister's Conference would make sense because school would start again next Monday in most federal states, said Bouffier.
One must agree nationwide on how to deal with the schools in the current pandemic situation.
In addition, the Hessian Prime Minister also adopted the term "bridge" from Laschet's lockdown attempt.
The aim of the heads of government must be to "drastically reduce the number of infections and thus build a bridge so that we can then talk about openings again," explained Bouffier.
Union faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus was also positive.
"Armin Laschet's suggestion is correct," said the CDU politician of the Funke media group.
"Until the proportion of vaccinated people in the population is high enough, we have to protect health with a bridge lockdown and contain corona infections for a clearly limited period of time." Brinkhaus warned that "the federal and state governments should make a quick decision."
til / mab / dpa / AFP