Vaccination Zoff: Scholz is already the "lame duck" - but the result could be spot on

Created: 01/13/2022, 12:44 PM

From: Florian Naumann

Olaf Scholz cannot rule to his liking when it comes to mandatory vaccinations - but that offers opportunities, comments Florian Naumann © Kay Nietfeld / dpa / Marcus Schlaf / fn

The Union grills Olaf Scholz because of the compulsory vaccination.

The CDU and CSU have a point - but the involuntary action of the traffic light tip could help the country, commented Florian Naumann.

Munich - Olaf Scholz (SPD) survived his first government survey as Chancellor on Wednesday - with the weapons of a woman.

A specific woman, his predecessor Angela Merkel: friendly, cool, factual, only smug about trace elements and always evasive.

Scholz had to evade, among other things, one aspect of the mandatory vaccination debate.

There is a reason for this: The SPD leader is more of a “lame duck” on this issue than the lord of the coalition.

As a result, this can even be good for the compulsory vaccination and the country.

Corona vaccination requirement: FDP slows Scholz - but the big, open debate could be the right thing

As an opposition apprentice, the Union has already identified the issue as an open flank. In the debate, the CDU repeatedly demanded “leadership” from Scholz instead of the proposed proposals “from the middle of the Bundestag”, and the CSU followed up. What is correct about the allegations is that there are inconsistencies. Why the general compulsory vaccination should be passed in a special way, which did not apply to the job-related one, cannot be explained rationally. Scholz didn't really try.

After all, there is no substantive reason. The reason is simply that it is not possible to force the self-divided FDP on a coalition line on the subject of “general vaccination requirements”. That can be interpreted as failure weeks after taking office and rather full-bodied vaccination promises, as the Union does. But it is also to be respected on this very issue.

Scholz - and with him, in the best case scenario, the whole country - may even be lucky: In the heated debate about compulsory vaccinations, it might be spot on not to intervene in a rushed procedure, but to use the forces of the strongest argument in the Bundestag without any results.

Not because a cabinet proposal passed by a coalition majority would be illegitimate.

But because parliament and, above all, a strong debate on the pros and cons have the power to find the best possible solution - and to bring even more people in the country with them.

Compulsory vaccination: It is probably too late for Omikron, now politicians should put the emergency brake on - but not pull it yet

And there is another point where Scholz's traffic light and the country could be lucky: It is difficult to predict which capers the pandemic will hit - but currently there seems to be a lot to suggest that vaccination is mandatory even in the speed process for the towering Omikron -Wave would be late. After all, the decree is not enough, it also has to be vaccinated. The vaccination requirement is more the emergency brake lever for upcoming variants, waves and winter.

And that is exactly what the Bundestag should now prepare, including, as requested by the Justice Minister, new Omikron findings - and perhaps even create it as an instrument that will only be put into effect by a separate Bundestag resolution.

As things stand, that's enough in summer as well.

Because a duty can only exist as a last resort.

As a last resort from further deaths and lockdowns, it is an option.

As an instrument that is ultimately useless because of hypothetical new, more dangerous or more harmless variants, on the other hand, it is the greatest political accident that can be assumed.

Traffic light: More transparency doesn't hurt - the Union would trust the Bundestag to look good

If Scholz und der Ampel has something to blame, it is a lack of transparency. Jens Spahn had painfully demonstrated several times in the GroKo that politics should not simply promise something - and the new Chancellor would not break the crown if he admitted that the traffic lights did not agree on the compulsory vaccination. The fact that parts of reality could unsettle the population is a traditional requirement: honesty creates trust.

And all parliamentarians should also have confidence in the elected representatives in the Bundestag.

When ex-CSU minister Eberhard Sinner tweeted that the topic was “so complex” that the government had to act itself, then that casts a very unfavorable light on democracy - and, incidentally, also on his party friends, who are ultimately in the opposition.