Berlin FDP boss Christian Lindner has defended more targeted measures to contain the corona and called for more vaccinations. “Everyone had hoped and expected with the availability of the vaccines that this winter would be different than last year,” he said at a party conference on Sunday in Berlin. “This hope has not been confirmed.”
The fourth wave with dramatic numbers of infections represents a new special danger. It is now a matter of a strategy “which combats risks more consistently, but which at the same time preserves more social life”.
There is “no U-turn” of his party in the pandemic policy, said Lindner. This winter differs from winter 2020, since blanket and area-wide closings are now not intended. There are, for example, more consistent 3G requirements in the workplace, and parliaments would have to initiate particularly severe restrictions. In the case of crisis management, “operational implementation deficiencies” would have to be corrected, also for significantly more booster vaccinations.
Lindner emphasized that so that no further corona measures would have to be decided, build on people’s sense of responsibility to reduce contacts now and get vaccinated. “The way to normality is in your hands,” he appealed to the citizens. In a pandemic, it is “not about freedom or health protection, but the right balance of both”.
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Lindner admitted that in the transition phase after the federal election the image of the “state community of responsibility” of the government, parliament, the federal government and the federal states was “unsatisfactory”.
The FDP boss condemned the march of opponents of the Corona policy in front of the house of the Saxon Health Minister Petra Köpping (SPD). Controversial debates are important for democracy. “We oppose intimidation attempts resolutely.”
FDP boss Lindner praises the traffic light coalition agreement
Lindner also praised the coalition agreement with the SPD and the Greens as a “policy of awakening”. The traffic light parties had concluded a contract “which will not move our country to the left, but will lead it forward”, said Lindner at the special party conference of the Liberals on Sunday in Berlin, at which the party wants to approve the coalition agreement. A clear approval at the largely digital federal party conference is expected. Lindner referred to criticism from the political left and the right and concluded that it was a “coalition agreement between the center”.
The SPD had approved the contract at a party conference on Saturday with 98.8 percent. The Greens have organized a member survey, the result of which will be announced on Monday. If the FDP delegates and the Greens members agree to the contract, the SPD candidate Olaf Scholz can be elected as the new Federal Chancellor and successor to Angela Merkel on Wednesday as planned by the German Bundestag.
Linder is to become finance minister. With the previous party leader Robert Habeck as minister, the Greens will have a new climate and economy department, in which the ambitious plans of the Ampel coalition for climate protection will be significantly controlled. It is still unclear who will be the new Minister of Health. The department will in future be led by the SPD. Scholz wants to announce the change on Monday.
More: You can read everything you need to know about Corona in our news blog