The situation in the morning - general vaccination requirements in the Bundestag, no weapons for Ukraine, the CDU wants to throw out the right wing

Will the unvaccinated be held accountable?

Perhaps the end of the corona pandemic in Germany will begin today in the Bundestag.

For the first time, MPs are discussing the introduction of general compulsory vaccination.

It's called an »orientation debate« – because it's not the government factions that are starting a joint legislative project, but rather parliamentarians who go beyond faction boundaries to form groups.

A vote could be taken at the end of March.

Unbound MPs, free debate, the power of arguments - that sounds like a

.

And maybe it will be.

However, this moment of glory would have been born of the disagreement of the traffic light government.

Even if the Chancellor would like to make you believe that the group applications route was chosen because it was appropriate to the seriousness of the issue.

In truth, Olaf Scholz could not have organized his own chancellor majority for general vaccination because of the resistance of the FDP.

Unless he might have linked the vote to the vote of confidence, but that would have been the last resort.

Should have, should have... you know.

So now different.

Three groups and approaches are emerging for the period after the »orientation debate«:

• Compulsory vaccinations from the age of 18, promoted by parliamentarians from the three traffic light groups;

• General rejection of a corona vaccination requirement, presented by a group around FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki;

• Compulsory vaccination from a certain age, around the age of 50, favored by some FDP and Green MPs.

I'm looking forward to this debate, and I've been following the debate on this

with interest over the past week.

For me, in addition to health, freedom is the central concept in the fight against this virus

: we have to find our way back to our old lives.

However, this will hardly succeed with the current vaccination quotas.

In both the delta wave and the ongoing omicron wave, the vast majority of society has been and is being held hostage by the anti-vaccination minority.

• An unvaccinated teacher tells: Why I intentionally infected myself with Corona

How do the Germans tick?

But should we first wait and see what happens next with Omikron?

No, we shouldn't.

At least not if this is to be our last winter of misery.

Otherwise, the corona dance will only start again next autumn.

And if unvaccinated people block beds and treatment in the hospitals without need,

of those people who cannot choose their illness and who are dependent on help.

Wouldn't a temporary vaccination obligation be the most moderate and at the same time most effective intervention?

Once the basic immunity of the entire population was established through the combination of vaccinations and, as a result, more harmless infections and the annual corona threat was similar to that of the flu, there would no longer be a need for compulsory vaccination.

Incidentally, a clear majority of Germans (61 percent) are still behind general vaccination requirements

, even if support has crumbled by around 10 percentage points since the Omicron variant appeared.

This is the result of a current survey by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL, which you can read exclusively here in the morning.

35 percent are against it, the statistical error is 2.5 percent.

The supporters of the SPD and the Greens are the most determined supporters of compulsory vaccination (around 80 percent in favour), the

the rear .

The statistical error here is 6.7 percent.

• Vorpommern-Greifswald: District does not enforce occupational vaccination

German weapons for Ukraine?

A huge empire deploys more than 100,000 soldiers on the border of a small neighbor.

A raid could be imminent, the smaller country is not a member of a powerful military alliance and is almost defenseless.

What does the gut feeling say?

It says: Of course, deliver!

So should Germany supply arms to Ukraine?

No.

, we must not be guided by such an emotion.

Why not?

Because the Ampel and previous governments have always promised not to deliver weapons to crisis areas?

That can't be the only reason.

After all, a few years ago Germany supplied the

with G36 assault rifles, among other things, to support them in the fight against the "Islamic State" (IS).

That was right.

What is different between Ukraine and the Peshmerga fighters:

Germany can't supply enough arms to get Vladimir Putin into trouble.

Russia can easily militarily counter any Ukrainian rearmament from Berlin.

Means: German arms deliveries would be more of a symbolic nature.

But what's the point?

There are other

for Putin : exclusion from the Swift international payment system, the end of Nord Stream 2. The Germans should show their colors.

If Putin is unpredictable for us, then we and the West must be all the more predictable for him.

The man in the Kremlin needs to know at all times what severe political, military and economic consequences an attack on Ukraine would have for him.

That's why it irritated me that SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, in the "top-level talks" with my colleague Markus Feldenkirchen, considered it strategically valuable to leave Putin in the dark.

"In the event that Russia attacks Ukraine's territorial integrity, all options are on the table," Klingbeil said.

Means what?

Klingbeil: "It's none of the Russian side's business what cards we draw."

Oh but.

John F. Kennedy said beautifully,

• SPD leader in SPIEGEL top-level talks: Klingbeil warns of war "in the middle of Europe"

Winner of the day...

… is Friedrich Merz

.

The soon-to-be CDU boss can now show a clear edge against right-wing extremists because a CDU member named Max Otte, who heads an arch-conservative organization called "WerteUnion", did him the favor of the matter of the party expulsion Merz and Co. longed for uncomplicate.

"Dr.

Otte" (CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak) is now the (counting) candidate of the AfD in the federal presidential election in February.

In doing so, he is violating the

.

In addition, he "violated his duty of loyalty and solidarity to the CDU," said Ziemiak.

However, it could be that Otte has not been on Christian Democratic soil for a long time.

For years he was head of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation;

he claims to have voted for the AfD in the 2017 federal election;

after the murder of the Kassel CDU politician Walter Lübcke by a neo-Nazi, he complained about "incitement against the right-wing scene," which he later retracted and apologized for.

But expulsion procedures?

Are difficult in Germany, see the example of SPD and Thilo Sarrazin.

But with the latest AfD number, Otte went too far.

"There is a very hard and clear cut," said Merz, according to participants, on Tuesday in front of the Union faction.

That's how it happened.

On Tuesday evening, the CDU federal board under Merz made the political decision for a party order procedure that the responsible Cologne CDU district association will initiate against Otte.

• Planned CDU expulsion due to federal presidential candidacy for AfD: Otte's game, Merz' chance

The latest news from the night

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister does not want to make any concessions in the conflict with Russia:

  Dmytro Kuleba believes that various scenarios are possible in the conflict in Russia.

  For him, however, one thing is certain: his country will not simply follow the instructions of a major power in the conflict

• Boat capsizes off the US coast – 39 people missing:

  After a suspected smuggler boat capsized, the US Coast Guard is looking for 39 people.

  The emergency services were able to rescue a man – he had clung to the hull of the watercraft

• Man is caught by an avalanche and dies:

  A 39-year-old was carried away several hundred meters by an avalanche in the Berchtesgaden Alps.

  Any help came too late for the casualty

The SPIEGEL + recommendations for today

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• Psychiatrists in correctional facilities: How do you treat serial killers, Herr Knecht?

• "Very disturbing": Why a pensioner is not allowed to play music at his wife's grave

I wish you a good start into the day.

Yours Sebastian Fischer