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The “Third Law for the Protection of the Population”, which the Bundestag is debating today and is likely to pass, is meeting fierce opposition both inside and outside Parliament. It is the legal basis for country measures that can restrict fundamental rights in the event of a nationwide epidemic situation.
The procedure
Because the epidemic situation is a reality for a long time, the Bundestag has been discussing the law and the amendments proposed by the Health Committee in the second and third reading since noon and then wants to vote on them. In order for the legislative process to be completed as soon as possible, the federal states will meet today at 3 pm for a special session of the Federal Council. The FDP and the Greens introduced amendments, which were rejected by a large majority. In the end, parliament approved the law with the votes of the ruling parties, 412 deputies voted in favor, 236 against, and six abstained.
Police water cannons are used against the demonstration at the Brandenburg Gate.
(Photo: REUTERS)
The debate in the Bundestag
During the discussion in the Bundestag, the question repeatedly arose whether the new law was compatible with the fundamental rights of liberty. Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU), therefore, repeatedly emphasized in his contribution how important the government takes this, but that it must be weighed in light of the suffering that the virus would cause.
It responded in particular to the contribution of Alexander Gauland of the AfD, who had once again warned that the government’s measures ultimately amounted to a kind of dictatorship.
While it is being debated in the Bundestag, people are demonstrating at the Brandenburg Gate.
Physical integrity is also in the Basic Law, Spahn said, and the protection of health is not absolutely paramount. But the government decided to give it a relatively high weight. Also to prevent the health system from being overloaded, which would result from an exponential growth in the number of infections.
Spahn was happy and relieved by the successes in vaccine development. But he also said: “I give you my word: there will be no mandatory vaccination.” Turning to Gauland, he added, “Stop saying something else at last.”
Like other representatives of the ruling parties, he noted that the new law would regulate and restrict the ability of governments to act, and even regulate and restrict legally.
Before him, Gauland, one of the leaders of the AfD group, caused outrage. He described the government’s measures as excessive and unbalanced. “We have the plague in the country,” he asked the chancellor. It seemed to him that the virologist Christian Drosten was the true German sovereign, and not the people. For declaring the AfD as the only democratic parliamentary group in the Bundestag, they applauded it standing.
Christian Lindner, leader of the parliamentary group FDP, admitted that it might be necessary to interfere with fundamental rights. But the individual points of article 28 bis of the law are a list of restrictions on freedom and violations of fundamental rights, which in reality should only be carried out for very specific situations. The FDP will not agree with the law.
Jan Korte, parliamentary manager of the Die Linke faction, argued similarly, rejecting the Infection Protection Act in this way. Because any violation of fundamental rights and freedoms requires the approval of the Bundestag, which is not provided here. The terrible crisis in the crown should not turn into a progressive democratic crisis, Korte said.
That’s what it’s about in detail
The new paragraph 28a of the Infection Protection Act lists a number of protection measures that must be prescribed by state governments and authorities. These include, for example, mask requirements, distance requirements, contact and exit restrictions in public and private spaces, travel and overnight restrictions or bans, but also the closure of shops, cultural, sporting and leisure events. With the reform, the measures will be anchored in the law that was also ordered in the spring during the confinement and that are also in force.
The ordinances must be generally justified and limited in time to guarantee that the fundamental rights of citizens are not violated for an indefinite period of time. However, the regulations can be extended after four weeks.
Loss of income, for example, should be better regulated through measures. Parents who cannot work to take care of their children should be able to claim compensation before March. Hospitals that have financial losses because they cannot perform operations due to the treatment of corona patients should be compensated. It must also be ensured that all people, including those who are not insured, receive a vaccination and can be tested. No vaccination requirement is provided.
Protests
The meeting on June 17th Street was declared closed by the president around noon. Police wrote this on Twitter at noon. “Former participants of the demonstration now have an obligation to leave the previous meeting place,” he said. However, the police have not yet been able to break up the demonstration.
Emergency services began to clear the area and use water cannons. “Since the former participants in the March 18 meeting did not comply with the obligation to leave the place, people have just been watered by our water cannons,” wrote the police on Twitter.
At approximately 2 pm there was a standoff at the Brandenburg Gate. Two water cannons are on the side of the Reichstag building and repeatedly pour water on the protesters in a high arch. But this only seems to strengthen their resistance: “We stay here” and “Merkel should go”, many of them sing in ever new waves. Some call it “dictatorship of the water thrower.”
Police reported on Twitter that protesters “threw bottles, rocks and firecrackers at them and attacked them with pepper spray.” That is why there had been 190 “deprivations or restrictions of liberty” until 2:00 pm. Nine policemen were injured at the same time. The German press agency also reported fighting and an aggressive mood.
Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy have mixed with the protesters, otherwise conspiracy believers and right-wing extremists are not yet visible. It is difficult to know if they are not there or if they are well hidden. In any case, what they all have in common is that they don’t want to be chased away. The police are reluctant to use the necessary force to clear the area in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
On the other side of the Reichstag building, on the Marshall Bridge, the second group of protesters has gathered. It is more like a few hundred than a few thousand like at the Brandenburg Gate. They also warn out loud of the new Infection Protection Act, many of them do not wear a mask, safety distances are out of the question.
The police have begun to select individual protesters from the crowd without a mask and to determine their personal details. To do this, it has created a mobile registration center, similar to a wagon castle. Those affected form a long queue to be photographed with a number in hand.
The Reichstag building, the Chancellery, the other parliament buildings and the Soviet monument are largely cordoned off. There are about 2000 police officers on duty.
Opponents of the Crown measures have for days been calling for demonstrations against the law in front of the Reichstag building, including initiatives by lateral thinkers, but also right-wing groups such as the Identitarian Movement and the citizens of the Reich. The NPD has also jumped on the bandwagon. Time and again, protesters incorrectly refer to the law as the “Enabling Act,” an allusion to the law by which the German Reichstag in 1933 allowed Adolf Hitler to establish the National Socialist dictatorship.
On the sidelines of the demonstrations, AfD member of the Bundestag Karsten Hilse was arrested. As he said in a video that was distributed by members of his group, the police officers had spoken to him because he was not wearing a mask, justified by a medical certificate. However, since no specific disease is mentioned in it, the police did not accept it. According to him, there was a physical altercation when he tried to make a video. Berlin police confirmed on Twitter Wednesday afternoon that they had spoken to a member of the Bundestag because he “violated the mask requirement.” He was “uncooperative”, asked a colleague to film and then “offered resistance,” according to the authority.
AfD MPs have also apparently smuggled representatives of the “side thinkers” into the Bundestag building, who are harassing MPs from other parties in the corridors to induce them to vote differently. This was confirmed by MPs on Twitter, including Konstantin Kuhle. “I think these attempts to influence the behavior of voters are absolutely unheard of,” continued the national policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group.
The history
The Infection Protection Law was modified several times during the pandemic. In principle, the Bundestag decided in the spring that it could determine an “epidemic situation of national scope” and give special powers to the Ministry of Health, so that statutory instruments can be issued without the consent of the Bundesrat. This “epidemic situation” continues, but the Bundestag can put an end to it at any time.
With material from the agency dpa.
