Markus Lanz on ZDF: Reiner Haseloff has a lot of small minds

Markus Lanz talks on ZDF about the new government and Corona, surprisingly again without Karl Lauterbach – who will probably have to hold back as a possible new health minister.

Hamburg – Yesterday was Delta, today you could say Omikron, but apart from learning new Greek letters, the new mutant of the Corona virus primarily means new, but actually old worries. Officially, the pandemic situation was lifted a few days ago, which seems absurd in view of the current situation, but that’s how it will be in Germany in 2021.

Reiner Haseloff, CDU politician and Prime Minister of Saxony-Anhalt is responsible for one of the most severely affected federal states and strangely accuses the new government of all things: “Ending the pandemic emergency was a serious mistake.” There were waves, said Haseloff, there were federal states like Baden-Wuerttemberg or Bavaria the infection driver, which may be true, but also seemed very petty.

Markus Lanz (ZDF): Why is Haseloff not working?

Non-partisan action would be necessary, but ultimately it is up to the countries themselves. Markus Lanz asked in his ZDF broadcast why Haseloff is not taking the possible measures? There are counties in which the incidence is 200, in others 1000. A measure might help here, but not there, said the Prime Minister, but certainly do nothing, much less.

Kristina Dunz, journalist at the “RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland”, misses the political activity of the current change of power. A vacuum has emerged, especially since the future Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also part of the old government, so he would have to correct himself. Dunz lamented a mess of politics, chaos in politics, confusing explanations from politics: “What we need now is leadership, that is what many expect from the new Chancellor, but that has not materialized so far.”

Hard stuff, which was also confirmed by Prof. Helga Rübsamen-Schaeff, virologist. In Israel, which is a few months ahead of us in many ways, boosting began months ago, and what happened there should have happened in Germany as well. It is also not the case that the previous government did not know what would probably happen: The risk of infection with Corona also depends on the weather, it was foreseeable that the incidence would increase in winter, why did nothing happen anyway?

The corona policy was integrated into the election campaign, said Kristina Dunz, who did not want to let the virologists come up against it. The politicians are to blame, should never have claimed so early that there would be guaranteed no vaccination, that a booster vaccination would be necessary. What wrong recommendations did medicine make, Markus Lanz wanted to know from Reiner Haseloff on ZDF. “We’re all in the same boat,” said the Prime Minister and emphasized that knowledge about the corona pandemic is constantly changing, and the statements made by politicians are also changing accordingly.

Markus Lanz (ZDF): Lars Klingbeil meanwhile for compulsory vaccination

Lars Klingbeil, fourth guest at Markus Lanz on ZDF, SPD general secretary and possibly soon party chairman, emphasized again and again that the prime ministers have many options available, but they are often not exploited. It looked like a party-political little one, anything but cross-party cooperation, which would be necessary in a global crisis like the corona pandemic. One says Berlin is to blame, the other the countries. It will certainly not work that way, we will have to struggle with the pandemic for far too long.

Solidarity would help. Lars Klingbeil also admitted that a few weeks ago he spoke out against compulsory vaccination, but that his view on the subject has now changed because the situation has changed. Politicians have to admit that this is not fickle, but simply honesty, even if Markus Lanz on ZDF did not always want to admit that in this program. (Michael Meyns)