The Corona crisis team is expected to start work under his leadership in the next few days.
(Photo: dpa)
A man in a camouflage uniform looks into the camera, talks seriously about a “war” and that the “moment of truth” has come. He talks about the coronavirus, vaccination campaigns and contact restrictions. This scene comes from Portugal, but could also have taken place in Italy. In both countries, army generals have been in charge of corona disaster control for months.
Now it is supposed to be judged by the military in Germany as well. Against the background of increasing numbers of infections and new virus mutations, the new federal government wants to set up a central crisis team, which is expected to start work this week. According to consistent media reports, Major General Carsten Breuer should lead him.
The 56-year-old is familiar with fighting pandemics: he is currently in charge of the Territorial Tasks Command in Berlin, which coordinates the Bundeswehr’s operations in health departments, care facilities and vaccination centers, among other things.
The fact that a general is to take over the management of the pandemic fight in the future is triggering mixed reactions. The hope is that Breuer will get the logistical and organizational challenges under control quickly and efficiently. But at the same time there are concerns as to whether a military in a leading political position is even allowed and whether the Germans can get used to a crisis manager in uniform.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Disaster Relief Coordinator
Breuer has been a member of the Bundeswehr for a very long time. After graduating from high school, he began his military career as an officer candidate and graduated from the Federal Armed Forces College in Hamburg as a qualified pedagogue. Breuer later worked in Kosovo and Afghanistan, among others.
As a general, he has been in close contact with politics for years and, on behalf of the Ministry of Defense, created the Bundeswehr White Book in 2016 – the guidelines for security policy decisions and actions. Since 2018 he has headed the Command for Territorial Tasks, which coordinates disaster relief for the Bundeswehr.
“I got to know Carsten Breuer as a person who, despite all the challenges, exudes great calm,” said the defense policy spokeswoman for the FDP parliamentary group, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, describing the general. She was thrilled when she heard about Breuer’s work.
The main thing now is to cope with the logistical challenges of the pandemic – the Bundeswehr is unbeatably fast and efficient in this. “We are defending our population from a virus, so to speak,” says Strack-Zimmermann, “that is why it is wise to involve the Bundeswehr in such a task in coordination with the civilian forces.”
Breuer could also be a good cast because he moves outside the political cosmos. One example is Portugal, where a military ensured that the vaccination quota was almost 100 percent. General Henrique de Gouveia e Melo attributed his success to the “New York Times” also to the fact that he was perceived as independent of politics. He advised other states to “find people who have nothing to do with politics” in order to speed up vaccination campaigns. His advice seems to have been heard in Berlin.
No national powers
Others are critical of Breuer’s name. Carlo Masala, Professor of International Politics at the University of the Federal Armed Forces in Munich, called the personality on Twitter a PR stunt. Orders and responsibility are unclearly regulated in such a constellation. Wolf Dombrowsky, an expert in the sociology of disasters, also described Breuer’s crisis management team to the Handelsblatt as a “symbolic personality”.
In order to actually make a difference, Breuer would have to be given national competencies. But that is hardly conceivable in a federal system, says Dombrowsky. That is why the German situation is only comparable to a limited extent with the Portuguese or Italian.
He also sees Breuer as an “interesting test case” as to whether the Germans would accept a member of the Bundeswehr in such a position. This is supported by the fact that the Bundeswehr has always received a lot of support domestically – unlike on missions abroad, says Dombrowsky.
The appointment of Breuer also raises legal questions. Because the Bundeswehr is a parliamentary army. “The question arises as to whether Breuer should be appointed by the Bundestag and given powers,” says Dombrowsky. The management of a crisis team is an office that is actually carried out by the executive, for example by district administrators. Dombrowsky says: “Actually, Olaf Scholz should take on this task as Federal Chancellor.”
More: Virus mutant spreads: How Germany reacts to the corona variant Omikron