Holidays starting December 16: Merkel wants “slight additions” to Corona resolutions

Stand: 5:52 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes

METERArkus Söder (CSU) is calling on the federal and state governments to toughen up previous state proposals before the crown’s consultations. The Bavarian prime minister said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a meeting of the state parliament in Munich that some areas still need to be improved and supplemented.

The Chancellery apparently also wants to tighten contact restrictions in various areas in negotiations with the Prime Minister. According to information from the German Press Agency in Berlin from negotiating circles, the government headquarters is thinking of starting the Christmas holidays earlier than planned by the federal states. Therefore, Merkel could imagine that the holidays would begin on December 16.

Therefore, this should contribute to an even greater reduction in contacts before the holidays. The corresponding consideration was expressed in the meeting between the head of the chancellery Helge Braun (CDU) and the heads of the state chancelleries on Tuesday, he said.

The current agreement between the federal states states that self-isolation that lasts several days before Christmas can be supported by the first Christmas holidays starting on December 19.

Crucial meeting on Wednesday

The decisive virtual consultations between Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the prime ministers of the federal states will begin this Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. A preliminary meeting of the prime ministers was planned for 10:30 a.m. M. Based on this information, it was not clear whether the Union and the SPD countries would consult each other separately beforehand.

According to information from the Reuters news agency, Merkel wants slight “additions” to the country’s newspaper. The Chancellor described the submission of the 16 prime ministers in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group as “good” according to the information of the participants. Merkel also referred to strong regional differences in the number of infections, even between city-states. There are a very high number of new infections in Berlin, but not in Bremen and Hamburg.

The chancellor announced that she would reconnect with the prime minister on December 14 or 15 to assess where the infection situation would be.

Brinkhaus against relaxation on New Year’s Eve

Earlier, the leader of the Union parliamentary group, Ralph Brinkhaus, spoke out against the relaxation of contact restrictions between Christmas and New Years proposed by the prime minister for stricter crown rules at least at the turn of the year: “The people want to celebrate Christmas together with their family, this is not only very important for the elderly. ” the CDU politician told “Spiegel”.

“But on New Years Eve we don’t really have to open it all up again.” Brinkhaus warned: “Christmas and New Year’s Eve together would probably delay us a lot.” When asked about a possible ban on firecrackers on New Year’s Eve, he said: “Basically, anything that doesn’t take place on New Year’s Eve is good in terms of infection.”

The mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, for his part, considers that the relaxation of private contacts planned by the federal states during Christmas and New Year’s Eve is “appropriate”. “So many people have gone through so much in recent months,” said the SPD politician. You have to say: “At a special time of the year, when the match is very, very important to many, we allow it too,” Müller said.

Holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria start two days before

Before the new federal and state consultations on the future course to deal with the corona virus, the states ruled by the Union had spoken in favor of an extension of the holidays, at least that was the case in a joint document.

North Rhine-Westphalia had initially come forward and announced an earlier start to the holiday. There will be emergency care for students in grades 1-6 on December 21-22. The Education Ministry announced this to all schools in an email on Monday. According to the mail, the teachers are on normal duty both days. There were protests, among others, from the GEW teachers union and the Association of Mothers and Single Parents in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Also in Bavaria, the holidays are extended by two days due to the crown. This means that students will not have to wait until December 23, but their last day of school will be December 18 (Friday) of this year.

“The risk of infection is significantly reduced by the waiting period of nearly a week between school lessons and Christmas, so that families can celebrate in a healthy and carefree way,” Markus Söder tweeted on Tuesday. The Bavarian Radio had already reported on it.

The criticism comes from the German Association of Philologists, among others. But also many parents who had to sacrifice one day or another of vacation for the care of their children during the Corona crisis should not like the short-term vacation extension.

The association spoke of a “planning chaos”. The teachers wanted to plan their lessons wisely, the association’s president, Susanne Lin-Klitzing, told the German publishing network. “When in doubt, those who are about to graduate from high school or awaiting other exams would suffer short-term vacation extensions.” Rather than fidgeting during the holiday periods, serial testing is needed at the beginning of school in the new year, that is, voluntary crown tests for all students and Teacher.

In most federal states, December 18 is the last day of school before Christmas.