Status: 11/30/2021 6:24 p.m.
Germany learns from Italy. In this country too, a general is now supposed to bring the slow corona vaccinations up to speed. Major General Breuer will head the traffic light coalition’s crisis team. The 56-year-old is considered a logistics expert and experienced crisis manager.
The Bundeswehr General Carsten Breuer is to head the new Corona crisis team in the Federal Chancellery. This was announced by government spokesman Steffen Seibert after the federal-state consultations on the pandemic situation. The federal-state crisis team should therefore be set up immediately and “strengthen coordination and cooperation in the control of the vaccination campaign, in the delivery and distribution of vaccines”.
The designated Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz had previously introduced Breuer as the future head of the new crisis team. With the appointment of the 56-year-old, the traffic light parties are relying on a soldier who is also experienced in corona crisis management. The commander of the Berlin-based Territorial Tasks Command has been coordinating the Bundeswehr’s tasks in pandemic matters since last year.
Breuer is considered a logistics expert
Breuer is considered a logistics expert with extensive experience in crisis management. His command, which is responsible for domestic operations by the Bundeswehr, has also helped with snow and flood disasters under his leadership in recent years.
Breuer also served as a KFOR commander in Kosovo and, after stints at NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Federal Ministry of Defense, also served in Afghanistan in 2014. In 2018 he took over the management of the Territorial Tasks Command.
Kretschmer: “Good decision”
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) called Breuer’s appointment a “very good decision”. Breuer is known “as an important advisor here in the Free State of Saxony” and played an important role in the flood relief there.
The FDP defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann found Breuer the right candidate for the leadership position in the crisis team. “Since the beginning of the pandemic, General Breuer has done a lot for corona crisis management and administrative assistance for municipalities,” she wrote on the online service Twitter. “As the head of the command, which is responsible for the Bundeswehr inside and thus for dealing with national crises and emergencies, he is exactly the right person.”