The Greens health expert is part of one of the groups of MPs who tabled the new proposal.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin There is movement in the struggle for a majority-capable compromise for general corona vaccination in Germany. The two groups of deputies in the Bundestag, who have each introduced their own draft legislation for compulsory vaccination, agreed on Tuesday on a joint proposal for compulsory vaccination from the age of 60. This increases the chances of the vote, which is planned for this Thursday without the usual group guidelines.
As it says in a statement, “a vaccination certificate is to be mandatory for all people over the age of 60, i.e. the particularly vulnerable population group”. It should be fulfilled by October. This obligation should be able to be suspended with a Bundestag resolution in June if the vaccination rate could be increased sufficiently.
In the autumn, against the background of the then prevailing knowledge and potential virus variants, the Bundestag is to decide “whether the activation of the obligation to provide proof of vaccination for age groups from 18 years of age should also take effect”.
Specifically, it is the group around SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese and the Greens health expert Janosch Dahmen, who initially aimed for compulsory vaccination from the age of 18. On Monday she already presented a compromise proposal for a duty from the age of 50 with the option of extending it to all adults. The second group, led by the FDP health politician Andrew Ullmann, had proposed compulsory advice and then a possible compulsory vaccination from the age of 50.
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Wiese said that the groups are making “practical provisions for the fall” with the compromise. Supporters bet on the Union’s responsibility to join the compromise. “Our proposal provides the same age limit as the Union’s proposal and also includes the Union’s proposal for a vaccination register,” he stressed.
Ullmann praised the newly submitted proposal. “It’s a compromise I can live with very well,” he told Handelsblatt. “I know that the result did not convince all the supporters in my group, but the chances of a mandatory consultation in connection with a mandatory vaccination have now increased.”
Hope for high vaccination rate
Ullmann is the initiator of an application that originally provided for a possible vaccination requirement from the age of 50. “My hope, however, is that we achieved such a high vaccination rate in the summer that compulsory vaccination is no longer necessary and that it will be suspended again in the Bundestag, as the compromise allows,” said Ullmann.
>>Read here: Compulsory vaccinations in clinics and nursing homes: difficult start for Lauterbach’s prestige project
The initiative, which originally proposed mandatory vaccinations from 18, has so far been supported by 237 MPs. The group for compulsory vaccination from 50 initially supported around 45 parliamentarians.
The Bundestag is to decide on the controversial vaccination requirement, which Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is also campaigning for, this Thursday without the usual parliamentary group specifications. However, there is already a dispute about the order in which the various initiatives will be voted on. Union faction leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) said: “I want to expressly warn the coalition against manipulation on Thursday in the order of the votes with regard to this topic.”
More: Push for compulsory corona vaccination from the age of 18 failed for the time being