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Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff: "Nobody wants to bring death to others, but that's exactly what many risk"

2021-11-27T13:17:39.393Z


Do we need a nationwide lockdown? In an interview, Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff speaks about errors in the corona policy - and expresses doubts as to whether Friedrich Merz can be considered as Chancellor.


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Saxony-Anhalt's Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff

Photo: Robert Michael / dpa

SPIEGEL:

Mr. Haseloff, future Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says it will now have to wait a few days to see whether the new anti-corona measures will work.

Do we still have that time?

Haseloff: It is

fundamentally correct that the effects of a new regulation can only be seen a few days later because new infections cannot be detected immediately and effects in the area do not show up until after two weeks at the earliest.

The question is rather: Were the decisions of the majority of the traffic lights in the Bundestag sufficient?

I do not believe that.

SPIEGEL:

Do we need a lockdown now?

Haseloff:

Regardless of whether a nationwide lockdown would help - it is currently not legally possible.

The majority of the traffic lights allowed the "epidemic emergency of national scope" to expire, which means: From the traffic light's point of view, there is no longer a pandemic that allows such measures.

We can regret that, but we have to accept it.

SPIEGEL:

What can you not do in Saxony-Anhalt that you would like to do?

Haseloff:

Our current regulation still has these instruments; we are using a transition period until December 15th. However, according to the new legal situation, we could no longer completely close any communal facilities, including the catering trade. Even if we as a federal state were to close the schools, we would have to organize continued wages for the parents, as we did last year, and considerable economic aid for the companies, because the legal guardians would then no longer be able to go to work because of looking after the children. That worked in the time when a Federal Minister of Finance and a Chancellor clearly said: Here are the billions. We don't have that right now. The future government created other facts.Under these framework conditions, a lockdown through agreements between the countries is not a realistic scenario.

SPIEGEL:

How do you intend to break the fourth wave then?

Haseloff:

We have to massively reduce the contacts in other ways, for example through upper limits for events.

One of the biggest problems is the private environment and too much ignorance.

There are still celebrations for big birthdays with 20 people and more.

Many people in our country are far too carefree.

Nobody wants to kill others, but many risk just that. Because they don't get vaccinated and because they don't change their behavior.

In Germany, too, the incidence is clearly related to the vaccination rate, and it is simply too low.

SPIEGEL:

Do you need additional coordination with the federal government?

Haseloff:

We see the dynamic increase in the number of infections and the situation in the clinics.

We need closer coordination, also at federal level, because certain measures simply make more sense across national borders.

I therefore speak out clearly in favor of an early Prime Minister's Conference in the coming week.

SPIEGEL:

Could mandatory vaccination be the right signal?

Haseloff: In

any case, I am not ruling them out, yes, I am in favor of them.

First of all, the question is constitutionally in flux, we have to hear the arguments for and against.

SPIEGEL:

If you look at the current situation, you ask yourself how such a control failure in politics could even come about.

Haseloff:

The prognoses that were available to us for policy advice, especially from medicine, clearly misjudged the effectiveness of the measures.

The experts also had to learn new things week after week.

SPIEGEL:

With all due respect, Mr. Haseloff, but this wave was forecast for the winter, among others by the RKI.

Why didn't politicians react early?

Haseloff:

You can model anything.

There were model calculations for population development and economic development that did not come true.

And there were also different assessments of the course of the pandemic and the effectiveness of certain measures in medicine.

Modeling always means starting from the current state of affairs, but this is rarely the case.

For example, because individuals make decisions, for example about willingness to be vaccinated, that politicians cannot determine.

SPIEGEL:

The virus is obviously more predictable than the behavior of individuals.

Haseloff:

We can only make decisions based on our current level of information.

Take the vaccination.

Then we were told: get yourselves all vaccinated so that we can regain our freedom.

Then it turns out: not just two, but - only recently - a third vaccination is necessary, the booster.

SPIEGEL:

Our Brazil correspondent reports on a scene from a bar in São Paulo: Two men at the counter, on television it's about the corona situation in Germany.

One of them asks in disbelief: "In Germany, really?"

The other replies, "Yes, these madmen don't get vaccinated." What does it do to you when you hear something like that?

Haseloff:

The Brazilians probably have more confidence in medicine, they also want to live happily, they are a younger population. My grandchildren are all vaccinated and they say: We have done our part. We dropped out of school. We did not get certain grades that would have been important for an application. One of my grandchildren tells me: I've sat at home long enough. I need a decent high school diploma because it is important for my studies and later in life. I think the younger population in Brazil just wants to get on with life. They are more rational and can be vaccinated. We have too much skepticism about the necessary medical measures, but also about the decisions of the state, especially in East Germany.

SPIEGEL:

What do you think of the coalition agreement of the new traffic light federal government?

Haseloff:

I've seen a lot of coalition agreements.

Life will always be very different.

I think of the flood, of migration, or now the pandemic.

The actual main issues only emerge during the reign.

Still, I am amazed at how little there is to read in the pandemic contract.

I fear that the topic will continue to occupy us for a long time after the coronavirus.

Politicians need answers for this.

SPIEGEL:

Do you think it will take us years to defeat the virus?

Haseloff:

The coronavirus is a constant as such and will not simply go away.

It will last a long time, others will come.

As with other viruses, we will learn to control it better and better.

I am confident that we will manage to get out of the acute situation of a pandemic, for example by vaccinating.

But then there is always the risk that the situation will develop dramatically again.

SPIEGEL:

In the Union there is now the new battle term "left-yellow" for the traffic light coalition.

You ruled with the SPD and the Greens yourself.

Then what was the Kenya Coalition?

Left black?

Haseloff:

In a way, yes.

The SPD and the Greens are to the left of the CDU, which ensured that we in the government did some things that the CDU would not have implemented on its own.

Coalitions always live from moving towards one another.

SPIEGEL:

Why is Friedrich Merz better as CDU chairman than Norbert Röttgen or Helge Braun?

Haseloff:

Merz is representative of what the CDU has stood for for decades, and has thus also become the projection screen that unites our party.

In the 16 years of government, many compromises had to be made, we had to be compatible with other parties.

In the opposition, on the other hand, there is another chance to sharpen our profile.

Merz is the right person for this.

SPIEGEL:

It is always said that the party leader has the first right of access to the candidacy for chancellor.

Would that also apply to Friedrich Merz, or is he too old?

Haseloff:

I think this rule of the game arises from ideal-typical ideas from the history of the Federal Republic.

We are currently seeing, however, that exactly the opposite can be true.

Olaf Scholz was the loser in the party chairman election, but is now chancellor.

That is why I say clearly: Friedrich Merz is the right person for the party chairmanship, the question of chancellorship must then be decided in due course.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2021-11-27

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