Corona: “Vaccination must become routine for patriotism”

WORLD: Blume, the federal government and the states have included Christmas and New Year’s Eve in the crown’s rules for the next several weeks. Is that appropriate?

Markus Blume: We will examine the subsequent infection process. I definitely recommend a New Years Eve light. And when it comes to Christmas, we must focus on the essentials. He repeatedly complained that the time before and around Christmas is so fast-paced that it would be nice if things got a little quieter. In Bavaria it was called stadium time. Maybe this year we will at least have a chance to win something with a calmer Christmas.

WORLD: Should citizens expect vigilance? Does anyone come and count if there are really only ten people present?

Blume: Excesses should be avoided on New Year’s Eve, especially in public spaces. You have to intervene where the rules are obviously ignored and large groups are invited. But of course, there will be no Christmas police or New Year’s Eve checkpoints on its own four walls.

WORLD: If the number of infections still hasn’t changed in three weeks: Do we need to talk about national exit restrictions?

Blume: We need to end the lateral period on the number of infections. We cannot afford a continuous corona cycle in terms of health, ethics and economics. We must not allow 400 to 500 people to die from Corona every day. We have to protect the healthcare system from further overload. And we cannot make up for lost sales month after month with € 17 billion.

We just can’t get used to the current Corona numbers as usual. The numbers have to go down quickly.

WORLD: Again: with exit restrictions?

Blume: This may be an option at access points. Bavaria has provided exit restrictions in regions with an incidence of more than 300 cases per week and 100,000 inhabitants as a possibility. This is now taking effect in Passau, for example. Nobody wants to impose exit restrictions, but given those values, they can be a means of choice. What no one wants is an illness that lasts for weeks or months.

WORLD: Much tougher measures were imposed in Berchtesgaden in October than those now decided across the country. Schools were also closed. And yet the district still has incidence values ​​close to 200 and well above the national average. Doesn’t that show that we can’t avoid even more difficulties?

Blume: The measures have already paid off in Berchtesgaden. Meanwhile, the numbers have dropped dramatically. But the fact is that the region suffers from border traffic. We need a solution there. This is why Markus Söder warned against traveling to neighboring countries during the winter holidays. And anyone who does it anyway should be quarantined.

WORLD: Söder said that the measures should be justifiable from the point of view of protection against infection. By arguing, the CSU rejected the ban on firecrackers; Söder still calls for a ski vacation ban. What’s the problem when people trudge down the slopes?

Blume: Simply wiggling down the mountain is not a problem. But in the end he finds himself in the elevator row again, at lunchtime at the cabin, at night at his accommodation. There are too many uncontrolled encounters. Two months of confinement and then three days of fun skiing at risk: it would be crazy!

WORLD: Companies like the catering industry complain that compensation payments flow too slowly or not at all. What is wrong with that?

Blume: Unfortunately, the European Commission is also responsible for the faltering arrival of aid. The EU stubbornly applies a subsidy system that is made for good weather. That acts like a real brake shoe. Here the economic substance in Germany and Europe is damaged. Brussels now has to act quickly and adapt to Corona’s circumstances. We have to build a bridge into next year for the affected industries.

WORLD: What comes after the help?

Blume: If we have beaten the pandemic, we must defeat the recession. To do this, we have to create the second German economic miracle. With relief, entrepreneurial spirit and love of progress: creative, digital, sustainable.

WORLD: What was noticed in the discussions between the federal and state governments was an inconsistency in the school issue: on the one hand, vacations are brought forward so that the risks of holiday meetings are reduced and, on the other hand, measures of powerful as alternate lessons.

Blume: If you want to keep the school open, you have to protect it better. At school there would definitely have been more on Wednesday. Anyone who despairs in school will despair in the wrong place. Markus Söder shows how it is done in Bavaria: mask requirement also in schools and alternate lessons at hotspots from the eighth grade.

WORLD: Is the school jointly responsible for the high number of infections or not?

Blume: The school is absolutely relevant to the system, so it must remain open. But it would be naive to say that infections will not be transmitted there.

WORLD: Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) said in the government statement that the first vaccines could arrive before Christmas. However, the complete vaccination plan is not yet fully developed.

Blume: German ingenuity has led to the fact that we will soon have vaccines. It will still be a few weeks before doses are available in greater numbers. But there is one thing we must not do: lead a typically German vaccination debate. That would poison the subject before the vaccine is there.

We should mainly talk about the practical effects and less about the theoretical side effects! Vaccination is the only way to get back to normal. Vaccination should become a patriotic affair for everyone. For you and for others.

WORLD: When are politicians really vaccinated?

Blume: First, I think of the medical staff. Here I have the impression that hospitals, doctors and nurses are on edge, many are also infected. We owe it to these professionals to protect them. This also serves to guarantee supply. Otherwise, we will have bottlenecks. I would like politicians to set a good example and get vaccinated.

WORLD: Official recommendations for prioritization should arrive by the end of the year. It’s not too late?

Blume: Corona sets the pace, not the politics. When we have the vaccine, it is necessary to speed up the process. As soon as the vaccine is available in significant quantities, we need to clarify who can be vaccinated and in what order.

WORLD: Will we travel soon with the vaccination certificate, go to sporting events, experience the culture, go dancing?

Blume: I don’t want to start dividing society into vaccinated and unvaccinated classes.

WORLD: The first airlines only want to allow the boarding of passengers who have been vaccinated. States are very likely to impose an entry ban for unvaccinated people.

Blume: There will be many incentives to protect yourself from Corona. The most important is health. It will be essential that people are convinced of the efficacy of the vaccine.

WORLD: The CDU wants to hold its party congress on January 16. The corona measures should apply until January. Can you imagine that the party congress will go well?

Blume: The conditions under which party conferences can be held during these periods have been clarified. This can also be done without the physical presence of all the delegates in one place. I have no sympathy for a party like the AfD, which is abusing the privilege of a constitutionally protected party with a presence in the party’s congress in these times to demonstrate democracy. The AfD is a super spreader of political and intellectual dirt in Germany!

WORLD: The leader of the CSU regional group, Alexander Dobrindt, wants to permanently exclude the AfD from positions such as the post of vice president ten days ago after the rioters were smuggled into the Bundestag. Is that appropriate?

Blume: Intolerant people should not be treated with tolerance. In the dispute with the AfD, I consider that all parliamentary means are necessary to show the party’s barriers. The AfD tries to undermine parliamentarism from within. A liberal democracy must also be able to defend itself.

WORLD: How do you define “defensive”? A CDU politician said in the Bundestag that the fight would pick up again in parliament and on the street. Isn’t that also a derailment?

Blume: AfD’s business is to constantly cross borders and provoke. Not participating in this yourself is important and crucial. Rather, we should install railings. One of these security measures is that we do not help the AfD get a vice president position.

But my political objective is another: the AfD’s time in parliaments has expired. I want to do my bit to make sure that I am no longer in the Bundestag next time.