The corona pandemic is becoming a burden for the traffic light parties. The likely next Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is particularly under pressure.
(Photo: AP)
Even after two years of pandemic, politics still does not seem to have internalized the power of exponential growth. There were just three weeks between the alleged end of the epidemic situation and a “five past twelve” situation.
This development is the result of collective political mismanagement. But there is one thing in particular: the executive vice-chancellor and future chancellor. The pandemic threatens to strain Olaf Scholz’s term of office before it even begins. Because he is the one who belongs to the old as well as the new government and who therefore bears a special responsibility.
The list of policy failures is long. Ending the epidemic situation was wrong, and the dismantling of intensive care beds was fatal. And to suggest that everything will be fine once the citizens are vaccinated is completely premature.
Vaccination is the most important means of managing the pandemic. But there was no guarantee that the pandemic would end anytime soon. Because children are not protected in addition to those who refuse to be vaccinated. And because it is not clear how many of them have lost their vaccination protection.
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Nevertheless, politics has nourished the longing for a return to normalcy, which led to a laissez-faire approach to the deadly virus. Jecken celebrated a presumably large spreader event in Cologne, and everyone can tell anecdotes about friends who go shopping despite Corona.
All parties are responsible
All parties are responsible for this careless handling of the virus: the Union, because it declared the crisis to be over too quickly. The FDP because it is rightly perceived as the political force behind the laissez-faire stance. And Scholz, because he has watched the development for too long.
His announcement to make the country “winter-proof” came only after this “winter” – to keep the picture – had long since dawned. He also lacks the courage to revise the end of the epidemic situation again.
After all: The traffic lights want to refrain from lockdowns, school closings and curfews. That is correct, because these measures would only divide the country further. The traffic light should fear the anger of the vaccinated more than the anger of the unvaccinated.
If the situation is not to escalate further, the traffic light must take other, uncomfortable measures: compulsory vaccination for certain professional groups and a nationwide 2G-plus rule, i.e. compulsory testing of the use of public offers. If Scholz does not act decisively soon, he will make a false start before he has even started.
More: Traffic light wants to reintroduce the obligation to work from home