Status: 02/10/2022 11:34 a.m
Saxony’s local politicians rebel: The planned vaccination requirement for nursing staff plunges them into a dilemma – between federal politics and protests in front of the town hall steps.
The state government estimates that 100,000 employees in the Saxon healthcare system are not vaccinated. That is a third of all employees in this area. The numbers are neither new nor surprising given the generally low vaccination rate in Bavaria. But the closer the deadline comes, from which the vaccination requirement for nursing staff should apply, the more massive the protest on the streets, the more nerves are on the nerves of the municipal leaders.
The Görlitz District Administrator Bernd Lange (CDU) makes it clear that he of course wants to implement the applicable law. But what sounds easy is not in relation to the sectoral vaccination requirement: “I would also be breaking the law if I endangered our health system by now imposing entry bans on unvaccinated nursing staff everywhere.” Keyword security of supply. In addition, it will take at least three months for the already overburdened health department in his district to check thousands of individual cases.
Incendiary letter to Kretschmer and Lauterbach
Against this background, all district administrators in the state wrote a letter to Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer and Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach with the request to at least postpone the obligation to vaccinate in the healthcare system, preferably to put it to the test again in general. Even if Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder is now striking a similar note – it is a novelty that the Saxon district administrators are rebelling against a federal law.
What is also new is that mayors speak to participants in a demonstration against the corona protection measures and encourage them to continue demonstrating. This is what happened in Kamenz last week. Lord Mayor Roland Dantz (free voters) stood in front of the entrance portal of the town hall, in front of him a sea of lights from red grave candles.
In his speech, Dantz spoke out against compulsory vaccination in the healthcare system: “It’s about the question of deciding for yourself whether you want to be vaccinated or not.” Hundreds of people cheered the mayor of Kamenz. They had followed the calls from the AfD and the small party “Freien Sachsen”, classified by the Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution as right-wing extremists, to demonstrate that evening in the small Saxon town. Some then accused Dantz of cronies with these political forces, others celebrated him as a hero.
How to deal with the Corona protests?
Around 200 demonstrations against the Corona policy are now taking place in Saxony every week, both registered and mostly unregistered. More and more mayors have to find their way of dealing with the protesting citizens of their cities.
Mayor Anita Maass from Lommatzsch (FDP) admits that this is a tightrope walk, because as mayor she has no room for maneuver in relation to the corona protection measures. That makes it difficult to respond to criticism: “We may not be able to offer any solutions, but we may be able to find a way to deal with each other without letting ourselves be divided.” Maass had therefore invited to a residents’ meeting to stay in touch.
Other local politicians are themselves on the edge of the so-called Corona walks. They try to talk to people there. In Zittau, for example, he was quite successful, says CDU member of the state parliament Stephan Meyer: “Instead of speaking down from the stage, I think it’s better to seek dialogue. That’s otherwise just a charged atmosphere. In personal conversations you can much better exchange.” Meyer also wrote letters after these talks, in which he warned of the dangers of the facility-related compulsory vaccination.
State government multilingual
The Saxon state government made up of CDU, Greens and SPD is finding it difficult to deal with the demanding and required local politicians. Surprisingly, the government spokesman has now announced that he will not yet publish the decree announced for this week on the implementation of facility-related vaccination requirements. Too many questions are still open, they want to wait for the federal-state conference in the coming week. In addition, spokesman Ralph Schreiber added, the law is viewed very critically and it must be clarified whether it is still up to date.
However, the Greens in the governing coalition immediately objected and told surprised journalists that addressing the law as such was not on the agenda at the moment. Apparently there is a need for clarification in the black-green-red government of Saxony what the Free State in Berlin should demand.
Meanwhile, District Administrator Lange from Görlitz has a completely different concern. What do you create with the discussion about the practicability of compulsory vaccination in the health sector? Under no circumstances should it happen now that the opponents of vaccination are encouraged or even the political forces that are trying to instrumentalize people’s fears. That makes him very worried – in addition to everything else.