The path to knowledge is not the same for everyone. On a day when anti-wormer products are sold out in Austria because opponents of vaccinations believe it will help against corona, the route of the last year and a half pandemic to cross the Arctic is stretching in flip-flops. One has to credit Markus Lanz in view of the general density of Deja Vu without any fatigue, but with the appropriate dose of indignation (about ten canisters) to ask his guests about the show with the cynically added subtitle “Helplessness Part 2”. It will not be comfortable for anyone that evening, least of all for Alexander Lambsdorff, the foreign policy spokesman for the FDP and who, as a future member of the government, will soon be given the loose Corona scepter. And in the end it even manages to surprise the talk show host.
Because Lambsdorff’s party, in which people recently talked about “Freedom Day”, muddled through the pandemic policy, above all with a sensitive discussion of freedom that does not want any restrictions or compulsory vaccination for any professional group. Vice-chairman Wolfgang Kubicki has recently been particularly concerned about the reputation of the unvaccinated that opponents of vaccinations are being “put in a corner”, while in neighboring countries people are shaking their heads about Germany’s poor vaccination rate. “In the last few weeks and months it was clear what would happen if we did not increase the vaccination quota. But it did not penetrate the minds of politicians, especially those of the FDP,” says the science journalist Christina Berndt von der Süddeutsche Zeitung clearly in the direction of Lambsdorff.
Lanz drills early on where the bitter realization swells: When did you know about the November disaster? Stiko boss Thomas Mertens replies that he knew that as early as July. Lambsdorff admits relatively freely, only to have found out about the general election. Lanz dissects both answers. Why shouldn’t Mertens have screamed louder? How often did he talk to Jens Spahn on the phone? “Five to ten times,” admits Mertens. “That wasn’t a secret science,” defends the virologist and the health minister at the same time, who “tried hard” as if the pandemic was a math exam and Jens Spahn was more of the language type. Lanz clamps the pliers tighter: The same Jens Spahn who announced a few weeks ago in the Tagesschau that the pandemic had actually been defeated? With to the had one been in exchange?
Even the Stiko boss squirms
The Stiko boss, who is getting more and more sighing and groaning, writhes out of the contradiction in an absurdly seeming pity for the tough existence of the politicians: They are in “a field of tension”. Alexander Lambsdorff nods eagerly at this point and throws into the touching “It’s-yes-everything-damn-complicated” scene an emotional lament of dangerous half-knowledge: There are even “sometimes different opinions in science!”
Lanz: “No.”
Lambsdorff: “Yes.”
Lanz: “No.”
Lambsdorff: “But isn’t there a difference between Professor Drosten and Professor Streeck?”
Lanz: “Not at the core.”
Lambsdorff insists on the insane complexity of the situation and outlines the “different populations”. Only that the Lambsdorff society is not that unequal, because primarily everyone, whether home office parents, companies or artists, suffer from the restrictions of corona measures. And of course Lamsbdorff insists on poking at the old government and reminds us that the Ampel-Coalition is still free of sin and that it has not caused any “Easter debacle”.
Lanz then puts down his moderation cards, on which he has noted down all the vague statements from party colleagues, and takes on a glowing monologue that begins in the overcrowded Munich intensive care unit and patients who have flown to South Tyrol and ends with the word “Gau”.
It works: Suddenly, the news from Stiko boss Mertens that a booster recommendation from the age of 18 is being made promptly. Because at the moment there is only one official recommendation from Stiko to initially give the booster to older people aged 70 and over and six months after the second vaccination. And Lambsdorff cautiously crawls a few centimeters out of the Liberals’ hiding place for freedom: In principle, he is open to compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups.
“An FDP man who does not exclude compulsory vaccinations!” Shouts Lanz and smiles at the not so stubborn FDP. And maybe a little bit about yourself.
Marlene Knobloch is a freelance, streaming author, but dreams of televisions in the kitchen and bedroom. Every Sunday she could doze off linearly to the come-good-for-the-week wishes of the night magazine presenters with thousands of viewers in Germany. Until then, while peeling potatoes, she watches old Harald Schmidt episodes on her laptop.