"That can be something": Corona and lack of gas - Kipping teases Lauterbach

Created: 07/14/2022, 13:25

By: Franziska Schwarz

Supports free corona citizen tests: Berlin Senator for Social Affairs Katja Kipping (left) © Emmanuele Contini/Imago

Three euros for a previously free corona test?

The bickering continues.

Left-wing politician Kipping sees Health Minister Lauterbach as particularly responsible.

Berlin – Corona, gas prices and inflation are already making life difficult for Germans.

In the cold season, these crises will certainly not be any more pleasant.

Ex-left party leader Katja Kipping has now combined them in one scenario – to criticize Karl Lauterbach.

The SPD Minister of Health had warned of the BA.5 corona variant, of course also on Twitter.

That's why Lauterbach now has to deal with this side swipe in his thread: "Well, that can be something in autumn when it's too cold to meet outside and you have to move closer together inside because of lack of energy," Kipping replied on Thursday (July 14). .

Not a nice scenario that Kipping, Senator for Social Affairs in Berlin, draws here.

Her proposed solution: “Perhaps the citizen tests should be free again after all?” The SPD politician had announced at the beginning of the month that corona citizen tests now cost three euros, except in exceptional cases.

Reason: Germany can no longer afford anything else.

Corona citizen test: Left appeal to traffic lights under Chancellor Scholz

This was met with criticism from doctors, municipalities and the left, among others.

The latter fear for safe cultural events.

According to dpa, six left-wing government representatives from the federal states - including Kipping - argued in a joint appeal to the traffic light coalition that the step increases the health risk of low earners.

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is also one of the critics of the requirement.

The left sextet points out that higher numbers of infections are likely in autumn and winter.

"For large sections of the population, the personal contribution is not financially sustainable." This also jeopardizes what has been achieved in the cultural sector.

"We are dependent on nationwide and free tests because this is the only way we can make our protective measures for cultural institutions as safe as possible."

Free citizen tests are also a question of economic reason.

The "enormous means" of recent years to protect artists and cultural institutions and to ensure their survival serve as an argument.

Lauterbach had not responded to Kipping's tweet as of Thursday afternoon.