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Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann
Photo: IMAGO/snapshot-photography/F.Boillot / IMAGO/snapshot
Autumn still seems far away, but preparations for a possible corona outbreak are already underway.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) has now criticized the initiative by Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) to prepare for a possible mask requirement.
»I am in favor of following the rule of law.
This provides for an evaluation," Buschmann told the Funke newspapers.
The results of the evaluation should "absolutely" be taken into account "before we prematurely commit to individual measures," said the FDP politician.
Lauterbach had announced on Wednesday evening in the ZDF program “Markus Lanz” that he wanted to create the possibility for autumn to make masks compulsory indoors again in the event of a new corona wave.
As part of the work on the Infection Protection Act, which expires in September, Lauterbach considers it "absolutely necessary" to enable the option of wearing masks indoors.
Kubicki for Corona processing and against measures
FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki is calling for a parliamentary review of the corona policy and believes that renewed corona restrictions in autumn are only conceivable under strict conditions.
"There will not be another autumn and winter in which fundamental rights are restricted because of a diffuse data fog," said the Bundestag Vice President of the dpa.
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Kubicki accused the Federal Ministry of Health and the Robert Koch Institute of not having been able to "collect reasonably usable data" in more than two years of the pandemic.
The Free Democrats will only change the Infection Protection Act again to make stricter measures possible again if this change can be sufficiently scientifically justified and is no longer based on mere allegations, as has almost always been the case in the past .
According to the currently applicable Infection Protection Act, mask requirements are still permitted in a few areas such as medical practices or public transport, and there may still be compulsory tests in schools.
In order to be able to order further measures, the federal states must declare regions as hotspots by state parliament resolution.
According to the law, all these rules can only be applied until September 23rd.
Teachers hope for masks in schools
Those responsible in schools see autumn differently than the FDP.
The President of the German Teachers' Association, Heinz-Peter Meidinger, had recently spoken out in favor of compulsory masks in schools being prescribed again.
"Politicians are not doing their homework on the topic of pandemics and schools," he told the editorial network Germany (RND).
In his opinion, masks could be “a decisive factor” in a possible autumn corona wave in order to keep schools open.
The federal government must therefore quickly adapt the Infection Protection Act again.
The chairwoman of the education and science union, Maike Finnern, sees it similarly: "A good test strategy and wearing masks in the buildings can also play a decisive role in the future." The legal basis for this must now be created.
Kubicki defended his party's corona policy, which had enforced in the traffic light coalition that corona restrictions expire earlier than advocated by SPD or Green representatives: "It is currently evident that the current course, which the FDP has enforced under heavy hostilities , has not led to the predicted collapse of the healthcare system." He looks forward to future discussions about possible renewed tightening with great composure, said the FDP deputy, pointing out that this requires the "positive approval of all coalition partners".
In Kubicki's view, "a number of mistakes" have been made in the corona policy of the past two years.
He named the school closures, an "inhumane" isolation of residents of old people's homes or the "15 km Corona leash" - at times, citizens were allowed to move a maximum of 15 kilometers from their place of residence.
This policy harmed children and the elderly the most.
»I am of the opinion that only sensible parliamentary work-up and unreserved clarification can help to recognize mistakes as such and thus also to fill in social rifts.«
mfh/AFP/dpa