Berlin The Federal Constitutional Court will publish its first fundamental decisions on the restrictions on freedom in the corona pandemic this Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. In view of acute concerns about overburdened clinics and the new Omikron variant, politicians are hoping for specific guidelines on their scope for action.
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.
The corresponding measures were decided in April 2021 to contain the corona pandemic and were valid up to and including June of this year. In the newly revised Infection Protection Act, Paragraph 28b contains new, less drastic nationwide measures. (Az. 1 BvR 781/21 et al.)
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In May 2021, the First Senate rejected several urgent motions against the exit restrictions. Now, for the first time, the judges will decide on the main issue.
The First Senate wants to judge about 100 other constitutional complaints at a later date, including the restrictions on retail and the hotel industry.
Merkel discusses with Scholz
At 1 p.m., the Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her designated successor Olaf Scholz (SPD) want to telephone the Prime Ministers of the federal states about possible consequences. As several countries call for a new federal emergency brake.
“We have to look at the verdict and its justification very carefully, of course, but we are also in a different situation today,” said SPD chairwoman Saskia Esken in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. She referred to the higher vaccination quota than in the spring, “so that those who have been vaccinated and who are now being boosted can expect that we will differentiate on the issue of restrictions, contact restrictions and also restrictions for large events and similar”.
The Green health politician Janosch Dahmen told the German Press Agency: “We need a uniform partial lockdown in many regions of the country in order to break the fourth wave.” This does not mean general, but targeted closings where the situation is out of control may be. “Schools and daycare centers should, however, remain as open as possible with masks and daily tests.”
For unvaccinated people there should be contact restrictions in private as in the first lockdown. He also called for the closure of restaurants, bars, discos and the prohibition of larger events.
His party leader Robert Habeck spoke out in favor of federal states with high incidences preferring the school holidays. “I think it’s right if the Christmas holidays are brought forward in countries where the incidences are very high,” Habeck said in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”. The countries could handle this differently. “Baden-Württemberg, and I think that is a very smart idea, will use the last week before the school holidays to vaccinate the children, at least provide the offer.”
The executive head of the Chancellery, Helge Braun (CDU), told the Funke media group: “We need an emergency brake now, and every day counts.”
The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans called for “nationwide uniform, emergency braking measures”. “As a last resort, that can of course also be a lockdown,” said the CDU politician on TV broadcaster Bild Live.
Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) once again urged everyone to take decisive and joint action. “Now the federal government has to do its homework,” he told Bayerischer Rundfunk. This includes, for example, giving pharmacies the opportunity to vaccinate and providing enough vaccine.
There are basically several conceivable options on the table:
- Special situation: What could be achieved quickly would be for the Bundestag to re-establish the “epidemic situation of national importance” which only expired on November 25th – with a simple resolution. This would give a legal basis for all previous crisis instruments in one fell swoop. This could be done in the next regular week of meetings from December 6th or earlier in a special meeting. The Union in particular had criticized the fact that the traffic light had let this legal basis expire.
- 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.
Against this background, the decisions from Karlsruhe should have a guiding character. Court president Stephan Harbarth recently said on ZDF that it was about “a certain law at a certain point in time”. However, the detailed explanations usually result in “tips for follow-up questions that will arise, for example for upcoming pandemics or for measures in the current pandemic for the coming months”.
More: The current developments on the corona pandemic can be found in our news blog