civil protection
Green: Use subway stations and underground car parks as shelters
Green leader Omid Nouripour wants to reform civil protection. Photo: Fabian Sommer/dpa Pool/dpa
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With a view to the war in Ukraine, the Greens are calling for a reform of civil defense in Germany in a 15-point program. There should be more shelters, better supplies and more regular disaster drills.
In response to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, the Greens in the traffic light coalition want to reform civil defense and disaster control in Germany.
According to a 15-point program that is available to the “Tagesspiegel”, significantly more shelters are to be created nationwide. “One possibility, for example, is to include fundamentally suitable buildings such as subway stations, underground car parks or basements in public buildings in protection concepts,” says the draft that the federal executive board wants to adopt this Monday.
The entire civil defense must be strengthened, it goes on to say: “This includes having extensive capabilities for accommodating and caring for people, as well as expanding emergency wells for drinking water supply.” Furthermore, the current stockpiling regulations urgently need to be reformed; they have so far been limited to a few areas such as basic food supplies or oil stockpiling. “With suitable protective equipment, medication, medical material or technology, national crises require provisions that can be quickly accessed,” the paper emphasizes.
Regular disaster drills
There should also be regular disaster exercises across the country in the future, and the warning of the population should be improved. Among other things, according to the information, platforms such as the warning app “NINA” are to be expanded.
“(Vladimir) Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine shows us in a terrible way that the previous peace order in Europe no longer applies,” Green Party leader Omid Nouripour told the Tagesspiegel. The Bundeswehr must now concentrate on its “core task” of national defense, and civil protection must be strengthened. “The protection of the population is at the center of every security policy debate,” said Nouripour. The federal government would have to provide the necessary financial resources for this.