For airplanes – as well as for long-distance trains – after the end of many other corona rules, a nationwide mask requirement for passengers and staff continues to apply.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin, Montréal During the trip to Canada by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens), footage from on board the government aircraft caused criticism. Habeck and numerous journalists can be seen without masks.
According to the federal government, this does not violate the rules for flying with the Bundeswehr Air Force: “There is no mask requirement on Air Force flights. All participants of the trip must present a current negative PCR test before departure. This ensures a high level of protection,” explained a government spokesman when asked by the dpa.
The lawyer Udo Vetter, on the other hand, wrote in a blog post: “There are no regulations for air traffic that abolish the mask requirement unless you are (physically) younger than six years or have health problems.” Mask” does not take place legally. The Infection Protection Act clearly also applies to the Bundeswehr.
On Sunday, more than 80 passengers, including 25 media representatives, were on board the Air Force Airbus A340 on the flight from Berlin to Montreal, Canada. Photos and an ARD video show Economics Minister Habeck and journalists close together without mouth and nose protection. The prerequisite for traveling with you was a negative PCR test, which was no more than 24 hours old at the time of departure.
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The health policy spokesman for the Union, Tino Sorge (CDU), told the Handelsblatt that the “inconsistency of corona policy” has rarely been so tangible. “While the traffic light is negotiating the mask requirement, it has established a test requirement for government flights.”
Details on the new Infection Protection Act
On Wednesday, Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) want to present details of the new infection protection law for the fall, which also stipulates that masks must be worn on planes.
The new Infection Protection Act should also make masks compulsory on planes.
(Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker)
Union spokesman Sorge said: “The pictures of the Canada flight will massively damage the acceptance of the mask requirement.” The episode also shows that many corona rules are relics from a time when avoiding infection without compromise was the priority goal. “That has changed,” said Sorge. “Two years later, it’s time for a transition to more normality and personal responsibility.” This also includes reducing certain regulations.
The FDP parliamentary group leader Alexander Graf Lambsdorff also spoke out in favor of ending the mask requirement on airplanes. You don’t have to be a mask opponent or FDP politician to know: “According to these pictures, it can’t stay with the mask requirement in “normal” airplanes”, Lambsdorff wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. He himself is not a mask opponent.
Lufthansa also spoke up in a Twitter thread: “A negative PCR test does not exempt you from wearing a mask.” The former Berliner AfD parliamentary group leader Georg Pazderski criticized on Twitter: “Why do all passengers flying from, to and in Germany have to wear a mask, but not Marie-Antoinette Habeck?”
With agency material.
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