Federal emergency brake
Stricter corona measures: Why the traffic light is waiting for the judgment of the Constitutional Court
Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and her soon-to-be successor Olaf Scholz
© Tobias Schwartz / AFP
The number of corona infections is rising and rising – and with it the pressure to act. The federal and state governments are now targeting the next steps.
In view of acute concerns about overloaded clinics and the new Omikron variant, new corona restrictions in Germany are getting closer. On this Tuesday at 1 p.m., the Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her designated successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) want to discuss the crisis with the prime ministers of the federal states. Politicians expect information about their room for maneuver by court order from the Federal Constitutional Court around 9:30 a.m.
The two Karlsruhe proceedings are about the so-called federal emergency brake, which provided for a whole catalog of mandatory measures in the third wave of infections in the spring if the situation worsened. The tightening of the Infection Protection Act triggered a wave of lawsuits. The judges of the First Senate have now decided on selected constitutional complaints that are directed against the exit and contact restrictions imposed. Two other lawsuits concern the school closings.
From special situation to MPK
Depending on the decisions about which regulations are constitutional in a pandemic, several conceivable options are on the table for politicians:
- Special situation: It would be quick and easy for the Bundestag to re-establish the “epidemic situation of national importance” that did not expire until November 25 – with a simple resolution. This would give a legal basis for all previous crisis instruments in one fell swoop. This could be done at the next regular week of meetings on December 6th or at an earlier special meeting. Baden-Württemberg’s Health Minister Manfred Lucha (Greens) called on Deutschlandfunk to reintroduce the special situation and to impose a federal emergency brake, as in the spring.
- German Infection Protection Act: The list of measures reduced by the traffic light groups, regardless of the epidemic situation, could be expanded. For the time being, general closings of restaurants and shops or domestic travel restrictions in an entire state are excluded. This would require a legislative procedure in the Bundestag with the consent of the Bundesrat.
- Federal-State framework: A conference of prime ministers with the federal government could quickly tighten further requirements. For example, new or lower thresholds for additional requirements and restrictions in the case of high numbers of infections or hospital loads would be conceivable.
Where Omikron has appeared everywhere
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Wüst: “Can’t wait for a new Chancellor”
The chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference (MPK), North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU), called for rapid, nationwide protective measures. “We cannot wait until a new chancellor is elected. That is why this vote is needed in the next few days – preferably tomorrow,” he said on Monday in Düsseldorf. Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) told the editorial network Germany: “I only want an early Prime Minister’s Conference if it results in a binding legal consequence in the Bundestag.” He advised “to immediately prepare uniform measures analogous to the federal emergency brake”.
So far, another MPK is not planned until December 9th. The planned traffic light coalition had recently given various signals to the question of how quickly further decisions should be made. SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese told the German press agency: “We must first see for a few days whether and how the measures of the Infection Protection Act work.”