Markus Söder has definitely achieved one thing: his CSU is again being talked about throughout Germany. Bavaria does not want to implement compulsory vaccination for healthcare workers in mid-March. There will be “most generous transitional regulations”, “in fact first of all a suspension of enforcement,” the CSU leader said on Monday after a meeting of his party executive. He obviously took the federal government by surprise, there was encouragement and criticism from the federal states, and the medical and legal world discussed it.
Meanwhile, in Bavaria, the question of the genesis of this decision arises. Why and when did the swing come about, was it even a quick hit? An exchange of letters between Söder’s confidant and Head of State, Florian Herrmann (CSU) and a district administrator, which has now become public, indicates at least a short-term turnaround.
In January, the Straubing-Bogen district council passed a resolution: the district administrator should lobby the Prime Minister to ensure that “the selective vaccination requirement for healthcare workers is withdrawn”. Because the “already precarious personnel situation” in nursing and in clinics would “probably get worse” if there were no non-vaccinated people.
The letter from District Administrator Josef Laumer (CSU) was answered and signed by Herrmann: The facility-related vaccination requirement is “an important step in protecting vulnerable groups of people in the Covid 19 pandemic,” he wrote. The federal and state governments “didn’t make the decision easy” for themselves, and concerns like those from Straubing were taken into account. However, a look at neighboring European countries shows “that these worries are mostly unfounded”.
FDP boss Hagen calls the actions of the CSU “shameless”.
Herrmann warned the district administrator: “I would like to urgently ask that we do not create additional uncertainty” – we have to campaign together for the path we have taken. State Chancellery datestamp: Friday 4 February. On Monday after the CSU board: everything is different. And on Tuesday after the cabinet, Herrmann said: the partial vaccination was “completely impractical”, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) raced his draft “at 180 things into dense fog banks”.
SPD faction leader Florian von Brunn was surprised by this: On Friday the defense of this vaccination requirement, on Monday it allegedly ended in chaos – that was “principleless and irresponsible”. Söder probably hopes to “get an advantage in certain groups”, hang “his flag after the wind”. FDP faction leader Martin Hagen called the actions of the CSU “shameless”.
“Bavaria remains committed to facility-related vaccination as a first step, which hopefully will soon be followed by general vaccination,” said the State Chancellery when asked by the SZ. The federal government is called upon to “set up clear and practicable rules”. About the letter specifically? “It was right to clearly oppose the district council resolution, which called for the general abolition of facility-related vaccination requirements.”
In fact, the wording of the resolution is striking: that the measure will be “withdrawn”. A different wording than the pressure from the municipalities that had arisen over the past week. The Bavarian district association had called for the partial vaccination obligation to be “suspended, at least until the federal government presented practicable and unbureaucratic implementation instructions”. Yet there is not a shred of a hint in Herrmann’s reply on Friday of what was to come on Monday. Which probably suggests that the CSU board of directors has set the new line: now confrontationally reporting the suspension to the federal government.
Florian von Brunn criticizes that Bavaria should not be governed by the CSU board
Of course, this has been in the works for weeks. Minister of Health Klaus Holetschek (CSU) had raised concerns several times that “guard rails” from the federal government to enforcement were missing; as well as advances in compulsory vaccination – so that health care workers would not feel like they were making a “special sacrifice”. Holetschek said to the whole debate: “It’s better to name problems than to ignore them. That’s exactly what happened.” As is asserted in government circles: “This is really about the matter, not about a political plan.”
The Greens in the state parliament, on the other hand, accused the CSU leader of calculation. “Mr. Söder already only has the state election campaign on his mind” and uses compulsory vaccination for this, said health politician Christina Haubrich. The AfD, on the other hand, also wants the “sword of Damocles” of compulsory vaccination for everyone to be off the table, said its care policy spokesman Roland Magerl.
SPD man Brunn noticed something else: the swing to the CSU executive board, not to the Council of Ministers with the free voters or via parliament: “Markus Söder is now not interested in federal laws that he himself approved in the Bundesrat, nor for the state parliament”. According to Brunn, he allows “his populist turns” to be given a nod in the party leadership. “Bavaria must not be governed by the CSU executive board.”