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meA grandmother is sitting in her retirement home in Berchtesgadener Land. It’s Christmas Eve. The keeper brings a goose leg with red cabbage and cinnamon pudding. He puts a tablet next to dinner. After some fingering, the faces of the grandchildren appear on the screen and they sing “Silent Night.”
Justus bender
Policy writer for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Morten freidel
Policy Editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung
This could happen if the number of infections increases and the politicians are strict.
A grandfather sits with his family in Berlin-Wannsee on Christmas Eve. Everyone is happy to be together despite Corona. The grandfather wore his mask at Wolfsburg ICE and his son picked him up at the main train station. Two days ago the grandchildren were at a forbidden party in Neukölln, they are singing a song. After a week, Grandpa feels his throat itch. Rapid corona test is positive, GP sends him to hospital because he has had asthma for a long time. The man lies there, breathing oxygen, and dies three weeks later.
This could happen if the number of infections skyrockets and politicians are subdued at Christmas.
Choice between loneliness and illness
Germany faces an unpleasant dilemma on Christmas Eve. If the pandemic continues to escalate, the only option is between loneliness and illness. Politicians want to avoid a second blockade in much of the country. Shops, schools, kindergartens and hairdressers should be avoided. They are not causing infections, at least so far. The problem is the private contacts, the parties.
But Christmas is not just any party. This is where grandchildren meet their grandparents. Ironically, on Christmas Eve, the virus could be passed from young to old. The result could be thousands of deaths. Politicians are faced with the choice between restricting the party or taking a fatal risk.
There are good reasons to prefer solitude to illness. Nobody wants people to die for a night by candlelight and a barbecue. “As long as you don’t have a vaccine, you fight this virus by taking away its only food, that is, human contacts,” says the head of the Bavarian State Chancellery, Florian Herrmann.
You know how important Christmas is to many people, but you don’t want the measurements to depend on which holiday is on the calendar. “The virus is not based on the church year,” he says. This is what people talk about in Lower Saxony. “I am becoming more and more skeptical about what will and won’t work at Christmas. We are concerned, “says the head of the crisis team there, Heiger Scholz.” Christmas could be a wide-spread event if we fail to stop the pandemic beforehand. “
Ring the bell and ask
If the pace continues, there will be bans and with them an ugly debate about regulatory violations. “Of course, you can officially limit the Christmas parties. But how are you going to control that? Ring the bell and ask how many people there are. You can only appeal ”, says the vice president of the SPD parliamentary group, Bärbel Bas. Not everyone is so liberal about it. The head of the Saarland State Chancellery, Henrik Eitel, says: “Of course it is difficult to verify privately whether citizens are following the rules. We also do not want the public order office to visit the homes of citizens in general. But the security forces should take a closer look. “
