exclusive
Health Minister Lauterbach fears a blockade and failure of the cannabis law by Union-led federal states in the mediation committee. Its chairman defends himself against the minister’s “insinuation”.
It’s an unusual process. The future chairman of the mediation committee wrote a letter to the Federal Minister of Health to defend himself against the suspicion that he wanted to exploit his office for party tactics. It’s about the law on the partial legalization of cannabis.
The project will be discussed in the Federal Council next Friday. However, partial legalization of cannabis is an objection law. The states can appeal to the mediation committee. However, from the country’s perspective, the process could fizzle out. The Bundestag is likely to reject the regional chamber’s objection with its own majority. The starting point is therefore clear: the Federal Council can request a mediation committee, but in the end the law could still come through unchanged.
Therefore, political Berlin has been speculating about another possibility for weeks. The Greens and Federal Health Minister Lauterbach in particular fear a blockade scenario. On Monday evening Lauterbach said in the ARD show “Hard but Fair”, The law is on a knife’s edge: “The countries that don’t want it and also the countries that want changes could come together, and if it goes to the mediation committee, then there are options to pass the law, I would say to starve to death on the long arm. And we’re trying to avert that.”
Kretschmer announces delay of the law
The scenario could look like this: The next chairman of the mediation committee, CDU member of the Bundestag Hendrik Hoppenstedt, could delay the process until the traffic light coalition no longer has enough time to reject the Bundesrat’s objection. And these fears were given new fuel over the weekend. The Saxon CDU Prime Minister Kretschmer wrote on the online service
From the perspective of the Greens and the SPD, Kretschmer has officially let the cat out of the bag and admitted what had previously only been discussed theoretically. The Union could actually stop the law in the mediation committee. To do this, she would have to prevent concrete negotiations from taking place. This would be possible because appointments in the mediation committee always have to be decided with the agreement of the two chairmen. On the state side, the SPD Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Manuela Schwesig, is negotiating this. The CDU MP Hendrik Hoppenstedt is responsible for the Bundestag.
“Your insinuation is baseless, false and inappropriate”
Due to the speculation, Hoppenstedt has now written a letter to Federal Health Minister Lauterbach ARD capital studio is present. Hoppenstedt rejects any intention to block. Specifically, he wrote to Lauterbach: “Your insinuation that I would violate my duties as committee chairman for party tactical reasons is baseless, wrong and inappropriate.”
A blockade is not even possible because, when summoned to a meeting, all laws on which the mediation committee has been referred must be put on the agenda. A failure of the Cannabis Act is only conceivable if the Mediation Committee no longer meets during this legislative period. “This would probably be classified as unconstitutional simply because of the procedures that have not yet been completed and the length of the legislative period,” writes Hoppenstedt in the letter.
State sources say that the letter could also be seen as an attempt to save the appeal to the mediation committee. After Saxon Prime Minister Kretschmer’s tweet, some Greens in the states began to doubt whether they could take the risk of going to the mediation committee or whether the law would then risk failing completely. Without the votes of the Green co-governing states, there would be no majority for the mediation committee on Friday.