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Sahra Wagenknecht and the Left: Brittle vaccination peace

2021-11-20T14:52:20.772Z


More understanding for vaccine skeptics? Or a bonus for everyone who gets injected? The left has long struggled about its vaccination course, now there is a compromise. Only Sahra Wagenknecht continues to stand across.


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Sahra Wagenknecht and Dietmar Bartsch: Is the former parliamentary group leader isolated in the vaccination debate?

Photo: Carsten Koall / dpa

In Bremen, the left is proving its ability to govern in the corona crisis.

The small, red-green-red federal state has the highest vaccination rate in Germany and currently the second lowest seven-day incidence of new infections of all countries.

The health senator comes from the left: Claudia Bernhard.

Last week, Bernhard was a guest in the parliamentary group of her party to report how Bremen became the German king of vaccinations: Like no other federal state, the city-state relied on mobile vaccination teams that offered people immunization directly in the neighborhoods.

The Left as the party that cares, that does everything it can to increase the vaccination rate, that ensures that everyone can get a protective injection without much ado - regardless of social class.

That's the part of the left these days.

But there is also another.

Hardly any other topic in the party has provoked as much emotional controversy as vaccination in recent weeks: How does the party feel about those who have not yet been vaccinated?

To those who do not want to do that even now, when the country is facing a gloomy corona winter?

Heroine of the Unvaccinated

Some, including the party leadership, see vaccination as an extremely left-wing act, because it means behaving in solidarity in society in order to protect the weaker - and to overcome the pandemic.

Others argue, however, that the left must understand people who have not been vaccinated, especially those from socially weaker social classes, in whom people may not have the strength to obtain sufficient information.

Understanding but also for those who have fundamental reservations about the vaccination.

Sahra Wagenknecht has become the heroine of the unvaccinated.

The former parliamentary group leader, still the most prominent representative of the left, does not want to be vaccinated, defends her doubts about the corona vaccines loudly and continues to turn large parts of her party, which have been at odds with Wagenknecht for years, against her .

But Wagenknecht is not the only one who demands more consideration for those who refuse to be vaccinated.

The incumbent parliamentary group leader Amira Mohamed Ali recently confirmed on ZDF that the vaccination debate was being conducted in a "moralizing way".

The deputy party chairman Martina Renner reacted indignantly and tweeted: »The word 'moralizing' is completely wrong.

It is an ethical question how much understanding I show anti-vaccination opponents or even encourage vaccination skeptics. "

The public vaccination dispute weighs on the party, which has struggled with a clear course in corona policy since the outbreak of the pandemic.

And who has been looking for her future role since the 4.9 percent disaster in the federal election.

The parliamentary group tried to contain the conflict.

On Wednesday, the MPs exchanged views on the vaccination issue for over four hours, and participants later emphasized that the discussion was constructive.

In the end there was a compromise, which the left introduced as an amendment to the Infection Protection Act in the Bundestag.

It was to be expected that he could not find a majority in parliament. But anyway, he mainly brought the signal internally. Accordingly, the comrades want to massively expand the vaccination campaign "in order to reach groups with a below-average vaccination rate". Among other things, demands are made - as Bremen is the example - "to expand outreach, culture- and language-sensitive, peer group-supported vaccination offers" with a special focus on socially disadvantaged areas.

In addition, however, the parliamentary group advocates an unusual instrument: if it were up to the left, everyone who had been vaccinated twice should receive a tax-free bonus of 100 euros.

After the booster vaccination, there should be another 50 euros.

Those who have already been vaccinated should receive payment retrospectively.

The bonus "increases the willingness to vaccinate, is a small financial compensation for the burdens of the pandemic and it strengthens the economy," it says in the application.

The Bundestag member and former Brandenburg Finance Minister Christian Görke had previously even asked for 500 euros.

The idea behind it: Instead of exerting pressure on the unvaccinated, for example with 2G rules or paid tests, you want to create a positive incentive to get people to vaccinate.

According to reports, there were also first calls for a general vaccination requirement in the parliamentary group meeting, for example from MP Katrin Vogler, who could become the group’s health policy spokeswoman.

Many others have indicated that they are open to such considerations.

For the time being, however, there was no decision on compulsory vaccination.

For this purpose, the application with the bonus payment was passed with great unanimity.

All but one agreed.

Party executive advises Wagenknecht to join the AfD

Sahra Wagenknecht abstained.

The former parliamentary group leader has been advocating vaccinating mainly high-risk groups since the spring, stressing that everyone has to weigh up whether they trust a new type of vaccine and questioning "Long Covid", the long-term consequences of corona disease, as controversial.

Wagenknecht does not deny Corona, she does not express herself clearly as an opponent of vaccinations, but her statements feed the suspicion of precisely this clientele.

The dispute with the prominent comrade had recently escalated.

Party executive Maximilian Becker had advised Wagenknecht to join the AfD because their position on the pandemic hardly differs from that of the right-wing populists.

Wagenknecht resisted, spoke of "defamation", alleged statements that had never been made.

In the meantime, however, Wagenknecht is largely isolated in the faction with its attitude, comrades report.

Although she participated constructively in the debate on Wednesday, she was hardly able to convince - and mainly put forward her well-known theses.

On Friday Wagenknecht's husband, Oskar Lafontaine, spoke in a "world" interview.

In the vaccination debate, “a clear rise in intolerance, totalitarian behavior and an increasing call for censorship can be observed,” said the left-wing parliamentary group leader there, defending his wife: “Parties that constantly allow attacks on their popular politicians are not allowed to defeat elections wonder. "

Even if it gets lonely around you - that Wagenknecht will show more consideration for your party in the vaccination dispute is not to be expected.

It would be just as unlikely that a 100 euro bonus would convince the left figurehead of the injection for solidarity.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-11-20

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