Enlarge image
Marco Buschmann (November 2021)
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Will Germany be required to have a vaccination in order to finally get the corona pandemic under control?
And if such a regulation were introduced - how would it be implemented?
The new Federal Justice Minister Marco Buschmann wants to punish violations with fines.
"Nobody should be vaccinated against their will by means of physical coercion," said the FDP politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
»Instead, it would be conceivable to treat a violation of the vaccination certificate requirement as an administrative offense.
Fines could then be considered as a sanction.
It would also be conceivable to take into account the financial situation in each individual case when measuring, ”he said.
Buschmann left it open whether he would vote for a general vaccination requirement in the Bundestag or not.
He will only make a decision when all the applications have been submitted.
"There is an application that denies mandatory vaccination, there will certainly be an application that goes in the direction of general vaccination," he said.
"And there will probably be a third application that works with mandatory vaccination according to age."
Resistance in the FDP to vaccination obligation
The Bundestag is expected to decide on a general obligation to vaccinate against corona in the coming year in a free vote without parliamentary group discipline. Among other things, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had spoken out in favor of a general vaccination requirement, but FDP party leader Christian Lindner also says he is going in this direction. About 30 FDP members of the Bundestag had recently spoken out in a draft application against mandatory vaccination.
Buschmann defended the approach of the Ampel coalition not to submit its own draft law, but to rely on cross-faction group proposals.
Parliament has already done this on issues comparable to euthanasia.
"The route via group applications creates more acceptance and is the more appropriate procedure," said Buschmann.
“Debates like this are one of Parliament's great moments.
That is appropriate to such a difficult question. "
jok / dpa