German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has rejected a possible new attempt to introduce mandatory vaccination against the coronavirus. “There is no legislative majority in the Bundestag for compulsory vaccination,” he said late on Thursday, after consultations with prime ministers in Berlin. This is now the “starting point for our actions”, however much he regrets it.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) now wants to start a new vaccination campaign. “We must once again direct a really effective vaccination campaign to those who have not yet been vaccinated but are in principle ready,” Lauterbach said Friday in Deutschlandfunk. You know there is such a group, especially people with a migratory background. “They have to be achieved, we must not give up. In fact, we also have to advertise more creatively. We are preparing something now.”
The Bundestag voted against mandatory vaccination from age 60 on Thursday. Lauterbach therefore no longer sees the possibility of further easing. “We’ve done the loosening that can be done, but we’re at the end of the road,” he said. “If we had managed to make vaccination mandatory, there would have been a lot more room for relaxation in the fall. I now see that the Infection Protection Act will likely have to be amended again in early fall.”
He was “clearly disappointed that there is no majority today, I don’t want to hide that in any way,” Chancellor Scholz said. “I’m still convinced that it would be okay if we had a vaccination certificate in Germany.” With the Bundestag’s decision, however, a “very clear statement by the legislature” was made. “We will do everything we can to convince even more citizens of this country to be vaccinated,” Scholz announced. This will “take our creativity to completion”.
The obligation to vaccinate from the age of 60 was supported above all by SPD and Green MPs, including Scholz and Lauterbach themselves. is not abandoned, until then to achieve mandatory vaccination anyway.” Scholz obviously sees things differently. He considers the Bundestag’s decision “too clear”, the chancellor said. “And it wouldn’t be very democratic to pretend it was a accident or something.”
Lauterbach now also wants to refocus on toughening the Infection Protection Act: “I now see that we have to face infection protection again,” he told Deutschlandfunk. The traffic light coalition has just relaxed the Infection Protection Act. The short catalog of measures for states and municipalities is valid until September 23. This time you have to think of another change from the start, demanded Lauterbach. He sees the need to expand the toolbox again in the fall. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann of the FDP, responsible for the legal review, said that at the moment this is not possible. The pressure will build up again in the fall, especially as there will still be a vaccination gap without mandatory vaccinations.
For green health politician Janosch Dahmen, the vaccination requirement is out of the question for now. The decision in the Bundestag was clear, he says in the ZDF. “For me, the vaccination requirement is now marked in the first step.” However, you always need to be ready to speak up as the pandemic continues and you now face even greater challenges without mandatory vaccination. (apa)