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FDP General Secretary Wissing on the sidelines of the coalition negotiations
Photo: Britta Pedersen / dpa
On the day the budding traffic light coalition finalized their future corona plans, the General Secretary of the FDP posted a tweet that he regretted shortly thereafter.
Volker Wissing wrote confidently: "Our health system is stable, the health care of the citizens is assured, the 'epidemic emergency of national scope' can be lifted." A little later he deleted the tweet.
With the end of the so-called epidemic situation of national scope on November 25th, the SPD, Greens and FDP want to re-regulate the legal basis for protective measures in Germany. In the meantime, significantly more people have been vaccinated than when the exceptional situation was last extended. For many, the instruments in the fight against the virus no longer seem proportionate. At the same time, not enough people are immunized to curb the spread of the virus, the number of infections is rising rapidly, and in some places hospitals are again reaching their limits.
The FDP, however, it seems, has not understood the seriousness of this situation - or it does not want to understand it.
And yet she is driving the SPD and the Greens in corona politics.
Because the message that Wissing withdrew from circulation so quickly reads like the basis for the draft law that the traffic light negotiators have now presented:
The
FDP had repeatedly stressed that there would be no
curfews and contact restrictions
with it.
So they are not in the traffic light bill either.
The draft forbids the states to impose stricter rules than provided by federal law.
It was always said that there would be
no
compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups
with the FDP. So it's not in the bill. The health politicians Maria Klein-Schmeink (Greens) and Sabine Dittmar (SPD) see the need for people to be immunized, especially in the health sector. But there is just concern in the federal states that carers will quit if they are obliged to do so. At least, so it is said of the two, they still want to talk about an obligation to provide information about vaccinations in the workplace.
Citizen tests
should be free again in the future.
This point is also likely to go back to the FDP in particular, but the Greens now also consider this step to be appropriate in order to get the infection process under control again.
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach sticks to his statement that if the tests are free, an incentive to vaccinate is lost.
A
nationwide 2G regulation
is not possible according to the new draft - that should also go to the account of the FDP.
In future, this decision rests solely with the federal states.
After all, the
3G rule in the workplace is to
be binding throughout Germany in the future, and the Greens have been calling for this for some time. And after all, tests should be mandatory in nursing homes in the future. Both are not yet in the draft, but should be added in the next few days, it is said by the health politicians of the three parliamentary groups.
The Greens try, wherever possible, to dispel the impression that Wissing created with his tweet. Group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt always emphasizes that the end of the epidemic does not mean that the pandemic is over. Instead, so the defense of the Greens and the SPD against criticism from the Union, social associations and doctors' representatives, they want to create a legally secure framework for measures that cannot be overturned by the courts. After all, two thirds of the people in Germany are now vaccinated. Green health expert Klein-Schmeink admits that an "enormous dynamic" is developing in the intensive care units that should not be underestimated. She believes, however, that you can always readjust later.
The traffic light is about to take a similar direction as the executive government: First of all, do not exert too much pressure, drive on sight, correct later.
But these hotties wore down the people in the pandemic.
And it has ensured that the number of infections in Germany is soaring to new highs in some places.
SPD holds back
Surprisingly reluctant in this situation is the party that wants to appoint the Chancellor soon. So much so that it annoys the Greens. In the parliamentary group meeting of the Greens on Monday evening, the silence of the designated SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz was particularly criticized. According to the participants, one MP wanted to know whether there was an agreement that he was holding back. There is no such thing, said parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt. Scholz was standing by and doing nothing, she said according to the information.
There is a lot to be said and to do, especially when it comes to agreements with the federal states. However, they must approve the draft in the Federal Council as early as next week. Prime ministers like Michael Kretschmer (CDU) from Saxony or Markus Söder (CSU) from Bavaria do not go far enough with the new rules. Söder wants binding 2G regulations for all countries. Kretschmer fears a lockdown if the pandemic is not intervened more vigorously. Neither of them actually want the epidemic to come to an end.
While the traffic light was working on its draft law, the intensive care physicians of the German Society for Anesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine preferred to send a fire letter to the managing health minister Jens Spahn and the state governments. In many counties, the acute care of the population is at risk, they explained in their letter. The 2G regulation must be introduced in all areas, strict contact restrictions are needed. They asked: "Please act quickly and comprehensively now to avoid prioritizing patient care."
The public pressure now seems to be having an effect on the designated Chancellor as well.
Scholz wanted to speak in the Bundestag on Thursday if the future traffic light partner's draft Corona law is to be introduced, the dpa news agency reported.