Bavaria has submitted, now the federal government should follow. Numerous relaxations are expected to be decided at the MPK on Wednesday. It may just take a while before they come.
- Söder and his cabinet decided on numerous corona relaxations on Tuesday.
- Then Health Minister Holetschek hailed a day before the MPK with Chancellor Olaf Scholz * proper criticism of the government.
- This news ticker is updated regularly.
Munich/Berlin – The Omicron summit has been exceeded. That said on Tuesday, February 15, both Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) and Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach* (SPD). “We can see today that Corona has probably reached its peak,” said Söder at the press conference after the cabinet meeting. On this same day, numerous relaxations for the Free State * were decided. Is it time for the federal government to follow suit?
Before MPK, Söder calls for an emergency strategy from the federal government
From the federal-state round on Wednesday, Söder expects the course to be set for all of Germany – especially for the period from mid-March, when the legal basis for most corona protection measures is to expire. This is possible – but then a “basic pension package” is still needed, emphasized Söder*. This “protection package” must include things like the obligation to wear a mask, test questions and distance rules. Söder added: “And secondly, an emergency strategy for the fall should there be a new mutation, a new wave, which again has a different hazard.”
In some areas, such as the opening of clubs and discos, Söder does not want to press ahead, but rather wait for a nationwide regulation. “In gastronomy, we also believe that the path from 2G to 3G is possible, and also that you can go to 2G plus in discos and clubs and bars,” he said. But we want to do that together. “Because it is very important for us that we don’t get any party or disco tourism in the end. But that should be decided uniformly, especially at the sensitive point.”
Holetschek sharply criticizes the federal government before the MPK
It remains to be seen to what extent the Bavarian demands will be met. Mainly because the tones from Bavaria to the Scholz government were more than combative in advance. Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU), for example, hardly left a good hair on the work of the federal government in his government statement before the Bavarian state parliament. He wonders what the governing coalition has actually achieved: “Nothing at all,” said Holetschek. One must acknowledge that in Berlin “one mistake after the other” is committed.
However, while the massive easing in Bavaria will already take effect on Thursday, the nationwide easing seems to be a long way off. In a draft resolution that was announced in advance, easing* is only planned for the end of March. At the beginning of spring 2022, “the far-reaching restrictions on social, cultural and economic life are to be gradually lifted,” it says. However, it remains to be seen whether the first easing at the federal level will take place before that. (phone with dpa)
List of rubrics: © Sven Hoppe/dpa
