Berlin Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is counting on an agreement with the CDU and CSU in order to successfully get a law for general compulsory vaccination through the Bundestag. As the Handelsblatt learned from circles in the Union faction, the SPD asked for a conversation with the Union faction. “The chancellor wants an agreement,” it said.
According to information from the Handelsblatt, the conversation should take place on Wednesday next week at the earliest. The parliamentary group executive committee of the Union has appointed the parliamentary managing director of the CSU regional group, Stefan Müller, as the negotiating team, as well as Sepp Müller, who is responsible for health policy in the group. As it was said, the Greens and FDP are not invited to the conversation. “Scholz hopes for a grand coalition for compulsory vaccination,” it said.
“It’s true that there are contacts and we don’t shut ourselves off from talks,” confirmed Thorsten Frei, parliamentary manager of the Union faction. With a view to the chances of success, he said: “However, I’m not optimistic about that.” The “Scholz Group” wants to stick to a general vaccination requirement from the age of 18. “There will certainly be no understanding on this basis.”
Frei emphasized that the Union had “submitted a classic compromise proposal” with its application for a vaccination law. This is the basis for discussions. “However, I consider a general obligation to vaccinate, as proposed by Chancellor Scholz and Minister of Health Lauterbach, to be politically wrong and legally inadmissible.” “But there can be no question of an overload at the moment.”
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Patrick Schnieder (CDU), member of the Bundestag, also considers compulsory vaccination to be legally unworkable. “That was also the overwhelming opinion of the invited constitutional lawyers at the hearing in the committee.” Although there are many infections, the health system is not overloaded. The traffic light coalition in the Bundestag largely canceled all protective measures last week. “On the one hand, abolish almost all measures and, on the other hand, introduce the sharpest sword to fight the pandemic, that doesn’t go together.”
What a compromise could look like is therefore completely open. A proposal has long been on the table with the Union application, says the Union’s health policy spokesman, Tino Sorge (CDU). However, the concepts are “differing in central points”. As an example, he cites the necessary data basis and that the vaccination requirement cannot be decided “in advance”. “There is a high probability that general vaccination will fail,” said Sorge.
Marburger Bund warns of failure of compulsory vaccination
The reason for the Chancellor’s initiative is that there is currently no sign of a majority for one of the proposals in the Bundestag. The one for general vaccination for all adults currently has 220 supporters, the proposal for vaccination from the age of 50 has around 40 supporters. The Union’s motion, behind which the parliamentary group gathered almost unanimously, has around 190 supporters. 369 votes are needed for an absolute majority. The traffic light says that without the votes of the Union, the general obligation to vaccinate would have failed. A vote in parliament is planned for April. When exactly is still open.
The Chancellor hopes for a “grand coalition” for compulsory vaccination.
(Photo: IMAGO/Christian Spicker)
The debate is now reaching the “home straight”, said the deputy SPD parliamentary group leader Dagmar Schmidt. “The three proposals, which still differ in some points, must now be brought together with the aim of achieving sustainable and effective protection for our population,” she said. She therefore considers it necessary that the supporters of the other templates for compulsory vaccination, such as the Union, “seek constructive dialogue and work out a joint solution”. You take at least from parts of the Union a “serious interest” in it.
The health policy spokesman for the FDP, Andrew Ullmann, calls the Union “tipping the scales”. The chances are about fifty to fifty that vaccination will be mandatory. Ullmann is the initiator of an application for general vaccination from the age of 50. The obligation to provide information with the optional obligation to vaccinate from the age of 50 “could also be a compromise that the CDU could accept compared to the obligation to vaccinate from the age of 18 or no solution at all”. It is impossible for his group to move in the direction of compulsory vaccination from the age of 18.
Experts continue to see a high vaccination rate as the most important tool in the fight against the pandemic. The vaccination rate in Germany – especially in older sections of the population – is lower than in other European countries such as England or Denmark, which have been doing without almost all measures for some time. “If politicians don’t manage to introduce a vaccination certificate in May, our healthcare system will be under considerable pressure again in the fall,” warns the chairwoman of the Marburger Bund, Susanne Johna.
After the experiences of the past year, she found it difficult to imagine that an information campaign alone would have the necessary effect. “I’m afraid that without a general obligation to provide evidence, we simply won’t get any further and risk additional burdens that are simply avoidable.” The past two years have been a stressful marathon for many nurses and doctors. “You have made your contribution to ensuring the supply, now it is up to politicians to make their contribution.”
Even the Omicron variant, which is classified as comparatively mild, leads to enormous stress on normal wards and medical practices. Most recently, the German Hospital Society (DKG) stated that, according to a survey, 75 percent of hospitals would have to limit their offer. “We are in favor of a general obligation to vaccinate, so that in the coming autumn we will not again be faced with the risk of overburdening the health system and having to go into lockdowns again,” said DKG boss Gerald Gaß.
More: “Interference with physical integrity” – what speaks for and against compulsory vaccination