Covid-19
Prefer Prime Ministerial Conference? Countries are divided
Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (left), NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin in the Chancellery. Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The corona situation in Germany is dramatic – there are new highs every day. While some countries prefer to hold the Prime Ministerial Conference, they see no need for reason.
The federal states are divided on the question of whether the prime ministers should meet for another crisis discussion earlier than planned in view of the corona situation.
The managing chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) urges stronger countermeasures throughout Germany to fight the threatening spread of corona. Individual countries have implemented very massive contact restrictions, said government spokesman Steffen Seibert. However, everyone should realize that even countries in a relatively better situation would have to reckon with a much more serious situation. This means that they too may have to prepare for such measures.
The Chancellor is promoting that the situation is taken really seriously and that this is expressed in measures, said Seibert. Above all, he mentioned fewer contacts and adherence to rules with distance and masks. A possible federal-state round on Corona earlier than the previously planned date on December 9th remained open.
Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein do not see any need to bring the Prime Minister’s Conference forward. Now it is time to act, especially in the countries with a very high incidence, it was said in circles of the red-green Hamburg Senate. The necessary and necessary funds for this would be available.
Schleswig-Holstein is monitoring the situation very carefully, said a government spokesman for Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU). The federal and state governments agreed on measures to combat corona only last week. “The Infection Protection Act gives us sufficient instruments to implement these measures.”
Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) urges an early federal-state round. “I am very much in favor of a quick Prime Minister’s Conference,” said Kretschmann of the German Press Agency. “The new virus variant, the worsening situation in the intensive care units in many regions, the exponential growth that has not yet slowed down – all of this makes quick action necessary.” The Green politician emphasized that December 9 was too late as the date for the next crisis meeting.
The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) had recently called for rapid consultations from the Prime Ministers on uniformly stricter rules and declared that one should not wait until December 9th. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also called for a faster Prime Minister’s Conference. The acting Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU) said the best thing would be a conference of prime ministers with the federal government in the next few days.
Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff (CDU) is in favor of a rapid exchange between the states on further corona measures. In the next week it should be checked whether the decision of the Prime Minister’s Conference of November 18 should be supplemented in the current legal framework, said a government spokeswoman on request. The effect of these resolutions cannot be fully assessed at the current time, said the spokeswoman. An evaluation must take place as planned at the next Prime Minister’s Conference on December 9th. In view of the “worrying development of the corona numbers”, however, it could make sense to expand the catalog of measures beforehand.
The Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer (SPD) had already made it clear on Thursday that she wanted to stick to the original date. “Should a majority emerge in the district in favor of bringing forward the deliberations, Rhineland-Palatinate will not ignore this,” she said.