It’s a coincidence, but also a signal. On the day on which the 22 working groups start negotiations on the first traffic light coalition at federal level, the SPD, Greens and FDP present a timetable for the Corona winter. It is a turning point in the political fight against the pandemic.
The most important thing: The Corona emergency with nationwide special rights of penetration will end on November 25th, so there will be no more lockdowns.
“The traffic lights work before they exist,” said Green Party leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt when presenting the plans at the federal press conference. And the FDP politician Marco Buschmann makes it clear next to her: Now the principle will be reversed. There is no longer a prime ministerial conference of the federal and state governments specifying the corona policy and turning parliament into a nod off club – but again the Bundestag. “On this day, the dominance of the executive ends. This means that the initiative is again in the hands of the people’s representatives elected by the citizens.”
Buschmann, a fully qualified lawyer, is already speaking on this day like the new Federal Minister of Justice, referring to the partly escalated protests against the federal corona regulation, towards the attempted assault on the Reichstag.
Buschmann takes the floor again and again. “I don’t want to push myself in front. But it’s a bit about the legal technology,” he says at one point. The day is also his success, the FDP had repeatedly insisted on proportionality, which is why the instrument box is now clearly trimmed and defused.
What is planned by the traffic light parties
“The epidemic situation of national scope according to § 5 IfSG ends at the end of November 24, 2021. It will not be extended. Because their prerequisites are no longer there, ”says a key issues paper drawn up by the SPD, Greens and FDP, which Göring-Eckardt, the parliamentary manager of the FDP parliamentary group, Buschmann, and SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese have now presented.
“School closings, lockdowns and curfews will no longer exist with us,” emphasizes Wiese. “November 25th will not be Freedom Day either.” That will be more likely the beginning of spring: the mask requirement should fall nationwide by March 20, 2022 at the latest, as should all 2G or 3G regulations of the federal states.
In order to quickly increase the vaccination rate and to make progress with the third vaccinations, so-called booster vaccinations, an expert commission “vaccination rate” is to be convened, “in which we, together with practitioners, will find ways to significantly accelerate vaccination progress”.
No overloading of the intensive care units
Recently, the incidences rose again significantly. On a nationwide average, the 7-day incidence is 118, at which point there used to be extensive lockdowns. But the vaccinations have fundamentally changed the situation.
“There is no longer any threat of systemic overloading of the public health system,” stresses Buschmann. Thanks to the vaccinations, the hospitalization rate is now the decisive factor. So far, around 4.5 million citizens in Germany have contracted Corona, and over 95,300 people have died
On a nationwide average, the 7-day incidence is 118, at which point there used to be extensive lockdowns. But the vaccinations have fundamentally changed the situation. “There is no longer any threat of systemic overloading of the public health system,” stresses Buschmann. Thanks to the vaccinations, the hospitalization rate is now the decisive factor. So far, around 4.5 million citizens in Germany have contracted Corona, and over 95,300 people have died with or from a Covid 19 infection.
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The new Bundestag was constituted on Tuesday. The new regulation is to be initiated quickly by the new Bundestag, the government is to be formed in St. Nicholas Week and Olaf Scholz (SPD) is to be elected Chancellor – if the coalition negotiations are successful.
It is emphasized that the aggressive catalog of measures from Paragraph 28a, Paragraph 1 of the Infection Protection Act will no longer apply after the end of the epidemic situation in the federal territory. “It is legal history, it will be shut down,” says Buschmann.
So far, the instrument boxes specified in the paragraph – depending on the infection – include exit or contact restrictions in private as well as in public spaces, prohibition or restriction of leisure events and church services, the closing of hotels, restaurants, shops and fitness studios, a ban on cultural and sporting events as well as a ban on alcohol in public places.
However, since elements such as the mask requirement in interiors, shops, buses and trains as well as the requirement to show vaccination, convalescence and test certificates are part of the aforementioned paragraph 28 a, the states had insisted on a legal basis for this. Because these elements should stay.
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The prospective traffic light coalitionists now want to comply with the request of the most recent Prime Minister’s Conference. The paper says: “In order to adequately combat the dangers that continue to arise from COVID-19, we will create a legal basis for the federal states.”
This is planned: The measures such as the mask requirement should apply until the beginning of spring on March 20, 2022, “as far as they are necessary to prevent a renewed dynamic spread of COVID-19.” Expire in the beginning of spring on March 20, 2022 in Germany – if not mutations against which the vaccinations do not help, should emerge. “If not, all measures will end on March 20,” stressed Buschmann.
These measures continue to apply until March 20, 2022
The following measures continue to apply: Mask requirement; Submission of proof of vaccination, recovery or test, for example in restaurants or at events (2G / 3G rules); Creation and application of hygiene concepts; Distance requirements in public space, by which primarily public indoor spaces are meant; Processing of the contact details of customers, guests or event participants; Requirements for the operation of schools, universities, extracurricular adult education facilities or similar facilities. Göring-Eckardt emphasizes that a “protective cocoon” must be drawn around children, which means: as many vaccinated teachers and educators as possible, the use of masks is to be regulated regionally; Switching classes remains an option.
Home office regulations apply until spring
At the same time, aid for citizens particularly affected by the Corona crisis will be extended until March 20. Specifically, it is about simplified access to basic security and measures in the Corona Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance – this also applies to regulations for home office.
The special regulations for children’s daily allowance (30 instead of 10 children’s illness days and 60 instead of 20 children’s illness days for single parents) are also to be extended into 2022 “in order to alleviate the COVID-19-related difficulties in caring for children.”
The Schedule
The government of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), which is now only in office, has to pour the content into a draft law; this should be around 10./11. November around to be discussed in the Bundestag. Since the Federal Council also has to agree, but it will not meet again until November 26th, but the regulation must be in place beforehand, a special meeting of the regional chamber will be necessary here.
The “epidemic situation” was first established by the Bundestag in March 2020 and has since been repeatedly extended by Parliament. Establishing the plight So far, it has made it possible for the federal government and the state governments to order central corona measures in a simplified way without the consent of parliaments. At times there were violent riots during demonstrations against the regulations, especially in Berlin.
Due to the changed situation, especially as a result of the vaccinations, the pressure had increased to reduce the restrictions on fundamental rights and the instruments for this. The traffic light parties were able to quickly demonstrate their ability to act, also as a signal for the coalition negotiations that are only just getting underway.
