It’s THE duel in the corona-Autumn 2021: Olaf Scholz (63, SPD) against Markus Söder (54, CSU). Germany’s soon-to-be Chancellor against Bavaria’s Prime Minister.
On Thursday both went into long-range combat. Scholz introduced the Corona plan for the traffic light in the Bundestag. His announcement: “We have to make our country winterproof!” The SPD, Greens and FDP rely on maintaining the mask requirement and distance rules as well as 2G and 3G – but they exclude lockdowns and curfews, as well as compulsory vaccination for nursing staff.
Scholz’s first Corona appearance as quasi-chancellor: Free from alarmism à la Chancellor Angela Merkel (67, CDU). Despite the lockdown ban, Scholz warned: “We must continue to be careful.”
But that’s not enough for Söder for LONG!
He disguised the Scholz strategy as “close your eyes and through”. Söder blasphemed about Scholz’s catalog of measures: “You can’t drive with summer tires in a stormy winter!”
Söder’s main argument: the hospitals are “full”, the staff “at the limit”. At his appearance, medical doctor Dr. Thomas Weiler on: It is a “threatening situation for everyone who needs intensive medical care”.
In fact, the intensive care units in Bavaria are much more busy than in the rest of the republic (except Saxony and Thuringia).
As of yesterday, 2493 intensive care beds were still available nationwide, 19 620 occupied. Of these, around 2800 are corona patients. Although this is significantly less than in spring (up to 5000), fewer beds are still available than in autumn 2020 due to a decline in carers.
Söder’s demands: Compulsory vaccination for carers, nationwide 2G “as far as possible” and an “emergency option” in the Corona law. Means: The countries should be allowed to impose tough measures such as contact and exit restrictions! In other words, exactly what the traffic light has excluded so far.
But the soon-to-be government is fighting back!
FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki (69) to BILD: “Markus Söder tries to suggest that his Corona incidences in Bavaria would decrease if 2G is introduced in Schleswig-Holstein.”
Kubicki does not want to be blamed for the emergency in Bavaria: The capacity problems in the clinics “arose on the legal basis for which Söder and Jens Spahn are responsible”.