Enlarge image
Chairs in a café in Augsburg are set up for the outside area
Photo:
Tom Weller / dpa
The Bundestag has approved a new ordinance on more freedom for those vaccinated and recovered from corona.
The MPs thus approved that people who have been vaccinated twice against the coronavirus and who have recovered from Covid-19 disease are no longer fully affected by the contact restrictions and the exit restrictions.
The black-red coalition, the Greens and the Left voted for the regulation.
The FDP abstained, the AfD voted against.
The Federal Cabinet had already passed the ordinance on Tuesday, after the Bundestag vote, the approval of the Federal Council is now missing.
The state chamber will vote on Friday - the relief could therefore come into force on the weekend.
Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht, on the other hand, described the lifting of the restriction on fundamental rights as an "important step".
"The rule of law must apply, especially in times of crisis," said the SPD politician.
However, Lambrecht defended the fact that they were restricted for a long time - and continue to be for the unvaccinated - with reference to the protection of life.
Fundamental rights could be restricted in order to protect life and health and to ensure the functioning of the health system. That is a "good reason" to temporarily restrict the other fundamental rights. The Justice Minister also emphasized that the pandemic had to be fought further. "We all have to work flat out to ensure that these steps towards normality soon not only apply to those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered, but that we can all work our way back to this long-awaited normality."
The MPs in the plenary chamber argued lively about the right level of restriction of fundamental rights.
The AfD politician Ulrich Oehme accused the federal government of "playing off people against each other" with the relaxation for vaccinated and convalescent people.
His party demands a complete return to "normalization," Oehme rejected lockdowns as ineffective.
»There is no such thing as a bit of freedom«
The FDP politician Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus also criticized the regulation as inadequate: "Freedoms do not exist in slices, but only as a whole." The Liberal wants not only those who have been vaccinated and genesis to be given back basic rights. Even restaurateurs and sports facilities should be allowed to reopen for them. "You are very quick with the measures restricting fundamental rights," said Aschenberg-Dugnus, "unfortunately they take a lot of time to return them."
The CDU member Jan-Marco Luczak rejected the criticism.
Although there are studies that confirm that vaccinated people are less infectious, "less also means: there is a residual risk." Luczak therefore believes that opening restaurants and other places where many people come together in closed rooms is rash.
Then this "residual risk" could suddenly come into play - and drive the incidence figures up again.
The federal government issues the ordinance on the basis of the new Infection Protection Act.
At the same time, some federal states had already implemented similar regulations.
Bavaria and Hesse, among others, have already initiated their own easing for vaccinated and convalescent people.
fek / mrc