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Chancellor for a month: Olaf Scholz (SPD)
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Around a month after taking office, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) faced his first government survey in the Bundestag.
During Question Time on the 10th day of the session, Scholz campaigned for the introduction of mandatory corona vaccination for adults.
"Far-reaching measures" show the desired effects
Scholz praised the previous measures of the traffic light government and the federal and state governments as an essential contribution to the fight against the current corona wave. The far-reaching measures would "also have the desired effect," said Scholz in Berlin. The infection process associated with the new Omikron variant was reported in Germany "in a completely different way than elsewhere up to now." He added: "This is also due to the clear, far-reaching measures that we have defined here."
Decisions have been prepared "that have resulted in Germany continuing its path through the pandemic with great clarity," said Scholz.
This included very far-reaching contact restrictions that went further than in almost any other country in the European Union.
This is especially true if you look at them together.
Now is a good week for a signal of departure.
When Scholz started to make his introductory statement, members of the AfD parliamentary group held up posters in the plenary hall and on the stands with the words "Freedom instead of division" up.
The President of the Parliament, Bärbel Bas, threatened to impose a fine and be excluded from the debate - the MPs then put down the posters.
Such actions are prohibited in Parliament.
The AfD had previously voted against changes to the corona rules in parliament.
The other parliamentary groups voted for the changes to the 2G-Plus rules in the plenary hall.
The MPs are now only allowed to enter the plenary chamber if they have been vaccinated twice - or have recovered - and can also present a current negative rapid test result.
This does not apply to boosters.
Parliamentarians who do not meet these 2G-Plus requirements can, as before, only watch the plenary sessions from the visitors' gallery.
To do this, however, they will have to present a negative rapid test result in the future.
Self-tests are not accepted.
muk / dpa / AFP