Markus Söder calls his ultima ratio against the "dung-corona": A vaccination requirement for everyone.
Unexpectedly quickly, Germany could have an extremely heated debate.
Munich / Berlin - A few hours earlier, Austria's Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg had crossed a kind of magical line: The ÖVP politician announced a corona vaccination requirement - as a fact.
According to government plans, it should apply in the Alpine republic from February.
Germany is far from that far.
If politics in the Federal Republic will ever go that far.
But Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) - who has already acted as a pioneer of measures in the Corona crisis and on his part always on the trail of Austria - tried on Friday lunchtime to postpone the discourse a bit: Not now, at this moment, but With a view to next year, one has to consider “whether a further mandatory vaccination is not necessary in order to get out of this endless corona loop,” he said at the presentation of the new Bavarian corona rules.
Corona: focus on mandatory vaccination - Söder expands debate beyond care
Also in the days before there had been some controversial debates about vaccination requirements. But it was about a different variant: A corona vaccination obligation for members of certain professions or employees of certain facilities. Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt had already announced an agreement - but then had to row back. This minor vaccination requirement is (still) controversial in the ranks of the traffic light parties. According to reports, the FDP in particular is skeptical.
Nevertheless, the signs seem to point to the introduction of this partial vaccination requirement. At the Corona summit on Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the federal states pushed for a decree: "The federal states consider it necessary that all employees in hospitals and institutions provide integration assistance as well as in old people's and nursing homes and mobile care services Contact with vulnerable people are obliged to be vaccinated against the coronavirus ”, it said in the adopted text.
Söder also commented on Friday: It had been signaled that such a vaccination obligation would come, he let through.
Presumably, the CSU boss alluded to statements within the summit - possibly by Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz (SPD), who was also represented in the group and, as the coming traffic light boss, could most likely make statements in this direction.
In fact, the SPD had announced a move in this direction.
Even if only for the coming weeks.
FDP leader Christian Lindner recently no longer ruled out compulsory corona vaccination for certain professional groups and facilities.
Is vaccination mandatory for everyone?
Spahn had clearly warned - possible pan calls AfD on the scene
The compulsory vaccination for parts of the nursing and possibly also social professions could soon become a reality.
So far, however, there have been major reservations
about a
general
compulsory vaccination. "That would tear our country apart," warned Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) just last week in an interview with
Spiegel
. In addition, the departing head of department vividly described the practical problems of compulsory vaccination: "I can already see the picture of how we drag Sahra Wagenknecht with the state police to vaccinate," he explained slightly sarcastically.
Political promises of the past are another problem: Merkel and Spahn were not the only ones to commit quickly: since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a consensus that no one should be forced to vaccinate.
“There will be no compulsory vaccination.
Messages and posts that claim otherwise are false, ”the Health Ministry tweeted in January.
For days, outraged postings have been circulating on Twitter referring to these promises.
The AfD also agreed on Friday.
“Merkel, Spahn & Söder always insisted: no vaccination is required.
Now Söder lets the cat out of the bag, ”tweeted Bundestag parliamentary group leader Tino Chrupalla.
The day before, an AfD MP had delivered a vaccination tirade in the Bundestag *.
Corona dispute about mandatory vaccination: Bavarian Ethics Council no longer rules out the possibility - Söder warns of "endless loop"
In a change in content, the German Ethics Council recently recommended the examination of a job-related vaccination requirement, but is very reluctant to consider a general vaccination requirement. The Bavarian Ethics Council had recently struck a different note. "In addition, a general compulsory vaccination for the entire population should not be ruled out as an extreme possibility," said a statement published on Wednesday, to which Söder also referred. This "must then be seriously examined and considered if a job-specific mandatory vaccination does not achieve the desired results," explained the committee.
There was also support on Friday from general practitioners in North Rhine-Westphalia: “We have to prevent the intensive care units from filling up - with effective 2G rules. From a medical point of view, however, I now call for mandatory vaccination, that would now be the most effective. It would be the best protection, ”said Oliver Funken, chairman of the North Rhine General Practitioner Association, the
Kölner
Stadt-Anzeiger
.
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) also commented on the subject of mandatory vaccinations on Friday.
The admission sounded more like an implicit threat than a clear demand.
BDI President Siegfried Russwurm urged the population to vaccinate.
These are the highest civic duty.
"It must not be that a small group of vaccination refusers paralyzes an entire society with the majority of those who have been vaccinated," he said.
Austria shows that in such a dramatic situation a compulsory vaccination is possible as a last resort, said Russwurm.
Corona vaccination obligation in Germany?
Söder makes a clear forecast
It seems quite possible that Söder also wanted to create a threatening backdrop rather than a concrete plan.
However, it remains to be seen whether people can be motivated to vaccinate in this way.
At least it cannot be ruled out that Söder will at least take the claim seriously into the field.
Especially since it seems rather unlikely that a traffic light government will introduce the general compulsory vaccination.
The corona pandemic has already brought some political surprises.
"I believe that in the end we will not be able to avoid compulsory vaccination," was Söder's forecast on Friday: "Otherwise it will be an endless loop with this crap corona." (
Fn
)
