Enlarge image
Markus Söder, Angela Merkel, Michael Müller
Photo: MICHAEL KAPPELER / AFP
So resolved, almost satisfied, has not been seen for a long time: When Chancellor Angela Merkel interconnected with the state heads of government in recent months and then with the incumbent head of the Prime Minister's Conference, Berlin's Michael Müller (SPD), and His deputy, Bayern Markus Söder (CSU), appeared at the press conference, it was usually about damage limitation.
Then the CDU politician and the two heads of government tried to put into perspective what had gotten out of hand in the tens of hours before or had to represent highly controversial decisions. Like last time, when the group agreed on the so-called Easter rest after midnight, which Merkel herself collected only a day and a half later.
This time they simply didn't decide anything - that in itself made things easier and, above all, shortened it significantly to just three hours, Söder and Müller admit. But above all the two gentlemen seem relieved that this framework works after all - that is, the round of prime ministers with Merkel - even if some things are now supposed to be regulated by the federal government. And above all, there are positive messages to be announced this time. "That was a hope MPK," says Söder, Merkel repeats it almost word for word at the end.
Yes, the vaccination rate is picking up significantly, the numbers are developing so well that the federal and state governments agree that they will be able to cancel the prioritization at the beginning of June: Then everyone could be vaccinated - and the pace would accelerate again.
And at the same time relief for vaccinated and convalescents should be brought on the way.
If those aren't positive messages!
However - and Bavaria's Prime Minister Söder admits this, it turned out to be a controversy on Monday afternoon.
The question was controversial: Should the corona measures for vaccinated people be relaxed?
It is Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) who is on the defensive that day.
She presented the plans of the federal government in the round: a regulation according to which, according to a key point paper, those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered from Covid-19 should be better off than those who tested negative.
Several prime ministers of their own party contradict Lambrecht, report participants, and of all leaders of the Union side join her.
"We should avoid different treatment"
One cannot pretend that everything is already clear, criticizes Lower Saxony's state chief Stephan Weil.
"As long as we cannot offer everyone a vaccination, we should avoid treating vaccinated and unvaccinated people differently as much as possible," says Weil later.
Hamburg's First Mayor Peter Tschentscher and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig also report concerns in the group: It is important to maintain a balance between those who have been vaccinated and those who have not, Schwesig says.
Because it is the country chiefs who have to implement the differently strict Corona rules for these two groups.
They fear that the already dwindling acceptance of the corona rules will be further eroded by the frustration of the non-vaccinated.
What annoys the heads of state: With the nationwide emergency brake, the federal government has issued a rigid regulation - strict basic rights restrictions such as the night curfew are imposed purely according to incidences. “At the same time, vaccinated people should soon be able to have parties. It doesn't fit together, "it says from one SPD country.
Lambrecht defends himself.
According to participants, it is a paper from the federal government.
The minister repeats what she has already said publicly several times: It is not justifiable to maintain the drastic encroachments on the basic rights of the emergency brake for those who have been vaccinated.
Several constitutional complaints are pending against the new Infection Protection Act, and the Ministry of Justice is convinced that the new regulation in Karlsruhe can withstand, because the law expressly provides for easing by regulation for immunized and negatively tested citizens.
Merkel supported the Justice Minister, it is said, but also downplayed the status of the paper.
The Chancellor later said at the press conference that it was "the first draft of a paper" that had been discussed in detail.
After the vaccination summit, Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller made it clear what practical problems there could be during controls if vaccinated people were given more freedom in the future.
Despite the curfew, people are out and about in the evening: for example, when they go to work.
"And we will have some who can move on the street because they are vaccinated," said Müller.
The situation is not going to be easy to deal with.
It is more relaxed when it comes to vaccination prioritization.
It is true that Söder initially called for the established order to be canceled even more quickly.
But the majority of the state leaders see it like the federal government: As long as the vaccine is still scarce, the prioritization makes sense.
In the case of the AstraZeneca vaccine, however, Berlin, Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Bavaria have recently given up prioritization.
If you want to be vaccinated against the coronavirus in these federal states, you just have to contact your family doctor.
In a short time this led to an overload of the practices.
In Berlin, the vaccine has now been used up.
Other countries may therefore still hesitate to approve it for all age groups.
A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior in Brandenburg recently called the measure "populist and dubious".
In his state, the AstraZeneca vaccine is in good demand, he said.
"We would thereby fool people into an availability that does not exist."
From Hamburg it is said that a suspension for individual types of vaccine is currently not planned.
"We are still in a situation in which there is much more demand than we can offer vaccinations," a spokesman for the Ministry of Health told SPIEGEL.
The discussion comes too early for Bremen, currently the front runner in Germany when it comes to vaccination.
“As long as vaccines are still in short supply and not all people aged 60 and over and all people who are at increased risk of becoming seriously ill have received a vaccination offer, there must be no general release of vaccines «, Said Bremen's mayor Andreas Bovenschulte.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach sees it similarly.
“Dismissing prioritization is more convenient and popular.
From a medical and ethical point of view, however, it is right to hold on to it.
Because if we first vaccinate all risk groups, we will save more people's lives, ”said Lauterbach.
According to Merkel, all risk groups could be vaccinated by the end of May.
Nevertheless, the risk of overloading the health system has not been ruled out, said the Chancellor.
And that's why their appeal, messages of hope or not, is: "That's why weeks of effort are still necessary."
