corona pandemic
Merz against nationwide mask requirement from autumn
Friedrich Merz at an event in North Rhine-Westphalia. The CDU boss does not believe in a nationwide mask requirement. photo
© Jonas Güttler/dpa
There is a lot of disagreement in politics when preparing for another Corona winter. The Union parliamentary group and CDU chairman Friedrich Merz warns against encroachments on fundamental rights on suspicion.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz spoke out against a nationwide mask requirement in autumn. “A general mask requirement in public spaces? No. On what grounds?” said Merz, who is also chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag, of the German Press Agency in Berlin when asked whether he was in favor of such a requirement. The 66-year-old also emphasized that he would “definitely not” be vaccinated against Corona every three months from autumn.
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) had previously made it clear that he expected a nationwide mask requirement from October 1st. Merz emphasized that he was against such an obligation “just because of suspicion, because encroachments on fundamental rights must be carefully justified”. But if there are certain endangered rooms – hospitals, old people’s homes, care facilities to protect the residents and the people working there – his answer is yes to a mask requirement.
When asked if he was prepared to be vaccinated against Corona every three months from autumn, Merz replied: “Certainly not.” From the point of view of his family doctor, he has a sufficiently high level of protection thanks to his three vaccinations and a corona disease at the beginning of the pandemic. This has also been measured and verified. “I don’t believe that we are now continuing the vaccination debate in this way.”
Merz violently attacked the Minister of Health: “The way Mr. Lauterbach communicates and acts, he creates chaos everywhere and also unsettles the population.” This would possibly mobilize opponents of vaccination even more, he warned.
Dispute over infection protection law
Lauterbach had explained that it was not the case that a vaccination would only be valid for three months and that one had to be vaccinated every three months. This deadline for exceptions to the mask requirement indoors was chosen because, according to the existing view, vaccinations protect against infection during this period. They provided much longer protection against severe infections. Getting vaccinated every three months would also be “completely nonsensical from a medical point of view,” he said.
Against the background of the dispute over the traffic light plans for a new infection protection law, Merz demanded: “I can only recommend that the federal government not come to parliament with these uncoordinated, immature proposals in the fall.” He was surprised that the FDP and SPD had decided on issues together “which obviously not only met with no approval in part of the coalition, but even met with strong rejection”.
At the same time, the CDU chairman warned of a confusing patchwork quilt in the corona rules in the coming autumn and winter. If there are different characteristics of the infection process in individual federal states, this must be taken into account. “But the legitimate need of the population is that there is a regulation that is as uniform and understandable as possible in all parts of the Federal Republic of Germany.”
For example, an ICE from Hamburg to Munich runs through several federal states, said Merz. “You can expect that those who get on in Hamburg and get off in Munich will also find a completely uniform regulation in the connecting trains.” The CDU leader called for plausible, understandable and as uniform regulations as possible from the federal government, “which are also internally accepted by as large a part of the population as possible and can be implemented”.