Leading FDP politicians have a lot on the kerbwood when it comes to the pandemic assessment.
You are not alone in this.
But soon they want to rule.
Berlin - After the long Merkel era, the traffic light coalition wants to reposition Germany. The SPD, Greens and FDP presented this very strikingly with the first selfie together. But of course it's not enough with a photo: Especially the liberals are under pressure to act in the constellation that is actually somewhat too left-wing for their own claims. This becomes clear, among other things, in the corona policy. In the legitimate demand for legal certainty and more influence for parliaments on the one hand. But also in rather delicate statements on the other hand.
The FDP * had recently struggled with tightened measures to curb the number of infections.
In the first days of the pandemic, the party supported Chancellor Angela Merkel's restrictive course.
The party later tried to convince voters by campaigning for freedom rights before the federal election.
It was not long ago that leading FDP leaders spoke not only of more rights for parliaments in the pandemic, but also of a "Freedom Day", an end to all corona restrictions.
From the current perspective, with soaring infection numbers and a health system that is operating at its limits, this seems downright absurd.
It raises questions - even tough ones.
For example, whether the FDP government can.
Corona policy in Germany: Statements by the FDP before the fourth wave
The misery of communication began with the first traffic light press conference.
Marco Buschmann, First Parliamentary Managing Director of the FDP, proclaimed “Freedom Day” on March 20, 2022.
"According to the current state of knowledge, we agree that all corona measures will end on March 20," he said.
A tweet by FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing, which has since been deleted, caused a lot of stir.
“Our health system is stable, the health care of the citizens is assured, the 'epidemic emergency of national scope' can be lifted”, the future traffic light minister tweeted at the beginning of November.
In view of the rapidly increasing numbers in the intensive care units, this is a daring thesis.
Wolfgang Kubicki likes to polarize. A verbal derailment recently earned him sharp criticism. Because of his criticism of the behavior of the FDP, he described the world physician chief Frank Ulrich Montgomery as “Saddam Hussein of the medical profession”. The scientist had stated: "Anyone who apodictically says 'No compulsory vaccination and never again lockdown' has not understood the epidemiology of the virus and plays into their hands."
FDP boss Christian Lindner also made a serious mistake when he insisted in the ARD “Tagesthemen”, also at the request of moderator Ingo Zamperoni, that curfews and contact restrictions “have no effect after scientific research”. A day later he rowed back in a tweet, speaking of a misunderstanding. Nevertheless, the appearance left a lasting impression - and that in a situation in which the traffic light parties are increasingly criticized in view of the expiry of the epidemic emergency.
The FDP health expert Christine Aschenberg-Dugnus recently fell into the shortcomings of the moderator in the talk “Markus Lanz”.
“It was only a little later that I realized that things were getting out of hand.
Basically only in the last few weeks when it really got that high, ”she said when asked.
Lanz reacted stunned: “In the last few weeks?
You are the health policy spokesperson for your group!
You are about to take on government responsibility and you only knew what it was going to be for a few weeks ago? ”The politician:“ Because I don't look at the number of infections first, but at the hospitalization index. ”She probably paid no attention to the incidence early warning indicator.
Corona policy of the traffic light: Criticism of the expiry of the epidemic emergency - future federal government
The traffic light coalition was tackled sharply by the Union for its corona policy.
The plan, which has meanwhile been implemented, to let the epidemic emergency of national scope expire on November 25, brought all three partners equally into criticism - even though Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) had first advocated it.
In the exploratory talks, the FDP in particular had advocated a reorganization of the corona measures; it wanted to bring the discussion about measures into parliaments.
In view of the current situation, it was refined several times.
Nevertheless, several prime ministers criticized the fact that the traffic lights only gave the countries insufficient tools to fight the corona crisis under pressure from the FDP.
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Christian Lindner, party chairman of the FDP, sits at the federal party conference of the FDP between Volker Wissing (l), General Secretary of the FDP, and Wolfgang Kubicki (r), deputy FDP party chairman and Bundestag vice-president.
© Michael Kappeler / dpa
Nevertheless: Not only numerous FDP politicians were wrong in their assessment of the Corona situation.
Last but not least, the evidence is provided by the steep rise in the number of infections and the low vaccination rate.
Passing the responsibility solely on to the traffic light partners fails to recognize that experts had already warned of a fourth wave in the summer - and emphasized the need for booster vaccinations.
After all, the Corona law by the SPD, Greens and FDP now provides for significant tightening.
In December, Olaf Scholz is to be appointed Federal Chancellor, at the latest by then it will be the responsibility of the traffic light parties to deal with the current crisis.
And to learn from past mistakes.
(aka)
List of rubric lists: © Michael Kappeler
