Angela Merkel has campaigned in the Bundestag for the tightening of the Infection Protection Act. “The third wave of the pandemic has our country firmly under control,” said the Chancellor to the MPs. The government must do everything possible to break this. The forces of the federal, state and local governments should be better bundled.
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“The virus does not forgive half-heartedness,” said Merkel. “The virus does not forgive any hesitation.” Every day on which the emergency brake is applied nationwide is a day won.
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The Chancellor urgently warned of the corona pandemic overburdening the health system. “The situation is serious, and very serious,” she said in the Bundestag on Friday. “There is no getting around it: we have to slow the third wave of the pandemic and stop the rapid increase in infections,” she said. “In order to finally achieve this, we have to bundle the forces of the federal, state and local governments better than before.”
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The intensive care medics sent one cry for help after another. “Who would we be if we ignored these emergency calls?” Asked Merkel. “We mustn’t leave doctors and nurses alone. They cannot win the fight against the virus in this third wave alone, even with the best medical art and the most self-sacrificing effort.
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Merkel defends exit restrictions
Exit restrictions are not a new invention, but already laid out in the Infection Protection Act. Other countries such as Great Britain and Portugal have also used exit restrictions, in some cases significantly stricter. The nightly exit restrictions are not about preventing people from being outside in the fresh air, but rather about reducing evening visits – often using public transport. Exit restrictions are not a panacea, they could develop their effect in combination with other measures such as strict contact restrictions. The advantages of this measure outweigh the disadvantages.
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With a view to the spring lockdown 2020, Merkel said: “We have already done it once, we can do it again now.” Politicians do not make it easy for citizens. The vast majority of people in Germany are still helping to put a stop to the virus by adhering to the protective measures.
This Friday, the Bundestag debates for the first time the draft for a nationwide Corona emergency brake that was approved by the cabinet on Tuesday, for which Merkel also campaigned. It provides stricter regulations if more than 100 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants occur in a district or a city within seven days.
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From 9 p.m., exit restrictions should take effect to prevent people from meeting privately indoors and infecting each other. The planned steps should be discussed in a public hearing in the health committee in the afternoon. The law is due to be passed in the Bundestag on Wednesday. After that, it has to go through the Federal Council. A group of traders and restaurateurs has already threatened a constitutional lawsuit against the Corona emergency brake.
Lindner threatens constitutional complaint
Also FDP boss Christian Lindner has threatened the federal government with a constitutional complaint against the planned emergency brake. He said in the Bundestag that it is true that there is now uniform national action. However, he called the planned regulations on nocturnal exit restrictions “highly problematic” under constitutional law. Proposals will be made to make this law constitutional. Addressing the coalition parliamentary groups, he said that the FDP parliamentary group would be forced to “go to Karlsruhe by way of constitutional complaints” if the concerns were not addressed.
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In practice, the restrictions meant that a vaccinated couple would be prevented from miles away in a single company because of an outbreak, “alone after 9 p.m. to go outside the door for an evening stroll,” said Lindner. This example expresses the whole constitutional problem.
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AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel said her group rejects this draft law “out of deep and free conviction.” The federal government is planning to introduce “emergency legislation through the back door”. The federal government is planning “the endless federal lockdown”. Weidel did not mention any of her group’s own alternative proposals.
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The left-wing group leader Dietmar Bartsch said of the draft law, “The Left Party group cannot agree to this”. There should be no blank check for the federal government. Children in particular are “the blind spot” in the grand coalition’s fight against pandemics. The measures of the federal government hit schools and children “hammer hard”. “But in business they are soft as wax,” said Bartsch. There is an urgent need to make working life safer too.
Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt again criticized the bill as not going far enough. “It’s not the much-needed strategy.” The incidence of 100 set for the emergency brake is “too late to slow down.” We have to consistently go back to 50, or even better to 35. «In schools, alternating lessons must apply from an incidence of 50, said Göring-Eckardt.
Lauterbach attacks Lindner
SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach urged a quick implementation of the planned exit restrictions in the evening. “It will not be enough on its own, but in no country has it been possible to get a wave under control again with variant B.1.1.7 without also using the instrument of exit restrictions and non-bans.” said Lauterbach. According to the Robert Koch Institute, this particularly contagious virus variant makes up 90 percent of the population in Germany.
It is not the time to report complicated concerns, said Lauterbach to the address of FDP leader Christian Lindner. Lindner had basically backed the planned measures in the Infection Protection Act, but criticized the planned exit restrictions. Lauterbach said: “We need pragmatism, and not mutual clarification of everything that doesn’t work.”
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