Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (r, SPD), speaks with Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Federal Minister of Health, in the plenary session in the Bundestag.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Until recently, the supporters of compulsory vaccination tried to prevent failure. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) ordered Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock from the NATO meeting in Brussels to the Bundestag in order to be able to vote. The parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Michael Kellner (Greens), was only connected to an event in the morning to take part in the vote.
A simple majority would have been enough for the proponents, i.e. if more of the parliamentarians present had voted yes than no. It’s not enough for this: A total of 683 votes were cast on the proposal, 296 MEPs voted for the proposal, 378 against. Nine MPs abstained.
The compromise proposed by the two groups that had advocated compulsory vaccination provided for compulsory vaccination for all people over the age of 60. If the vaccination rate had increased sufficiently, compulsory vaccination could have been suspended in June by a decision of the Bundestag. In the autumn, against the background of the then prevailing findings and potential virus variants, the Bundestag decided “whether the activation of the obligation to provide proof of vaccination for age groups from 18 years of age should also apply,” according to the draft law.
The reason for the failure may also be the order in which the Bundestag voted on the various initiatives. Surprisingly, the draft law for compulsory vaccination came first. Proponents had hoped to put this one up for a vote last, in order to gain possible votes from other groups whose motions would previously have been rejected.
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The vote was preceded by a heated plenary debate. SPD parliamentary group leader Dagmar Schmidt said that the goal of general corona vaccination is to protect the health system, critical infrastructure and people’s health. “The virus will not just go away.”
Also in view of the consequences of the Ukraine war, Schmidt warned: “Today we have the chance not to have to deal with the measures to fight the pandemic in the fall.” The Greens health politician Janosch Dahmen said: “Prevention with compulsory vaccination gets us out from this pandemic.” A vaccination requirement from the age of 60 is effective, legally secure and reasonable.
Union refused proposal
The CDU health politician Tino Sorge accused the traffic light of not having approached the Union seriously. The Union proposal is balanced. The Union proposes a “precautionary vaccination mechanism”. “We stretch out our hand to you,” Sorge said to the factions of the traffic light coalition. Union parliamentary group Vice Sepp Müller (CDU) explained: “We want to have a vaccination register to know who is vaccinated in our country at all.” With the help of the register, people should be written to. And if a “deadlier variant” comes, the mechanism for compulsory vaccination should be activated.
Lauterbach countered the Union: “You cannot avoid responsibility by saying you are ready to talk.” The negotiations had been going on for a long time. “Today we need your government support to be different in the fall than we are now,” said Lauterbach. The country should not get used to the fact that “200 to 300 people die every day,” says Lauterbach.
Read here: Lauterbach’s U-turn – “A mistake for which I am also personally responsible”
Compulsory vaccinations from the age of 60 would prevent 90 percent of the deaths that can be prevented by compulsory vaccinations from the age of 18. Several advocates of compulsory vaccination criticized the fact that the Union does not provide for compulsory vaccination as a preventive measure.
The FDP politician Wolfgang Kubicki, who, together with other members of parliament, had submitted an application to increase the willingness to vaccinate without a general obligation to vaccinate, argued against the obligation. Vaccination will not achieve herd immunity, and there will probably not be an overload of the healthcare system – a much more dangerous variant in autumn is “not the most likely scenario”. Lauterbach then rejected the fact that more dangerous variants were not unlikely in the fall. Kubicki went on to say that it is not the job of the state to oblige adults to protect themselves against their will.
With dpa material
More: All developments in the Corona Newsblog