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Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach
Photo: Xander Heinl/photothek.de / imago images/photothek
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach is calling for the speedy introduction of general compulsory vaccination against Corona after a corresponding decision by the Bundestag.
The obligation to vaccinate must come quickly, said the SPD politician on Tuesday evening on the “RTL Direkt” program.
"If we want to make a motion that still works, it's a motion that puts vaccinations in place - I don't know - in April or around April, maybe May."
He justified this as follows: Those who were not vaccinated would then have to »go through three vaccination cycles (...) and by then it will already be September or October«.
"Because it has to be done quickly so that I can avert the wave - and that's the reason for the obligation to vaccinate - so that I can still avert the wave in the fall."
Group proposals instead of a government proposal
Lauterbach and Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) advocate compulsory vaccination.
However, there should be no government proposal, but the Bundestag should deal with the topic on the basis of group applications from MPs, and a vote without the usual group discipline is also planned.
Lauterbach defended this approach with the argument that it was an ethical issue.
This month there will be a first orientation debate in the Bundestag.
The SPD parliamentary group had set the goal that Parliament should then take no more than two months to make a decision.
Lauterbach said of his expectations regarding the deliberations in parliament: "I would say that we will see important debates there at the end of February/beginning of March."
Lauterbach said of the current development in Germany: "I think we will reach the peak of the wave in mid-February, and then the number of cases could fall again, but we have not yet reached the peak."
col/dpa