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Markus Söder long ago found his role in the crown crisis. It gives the advocate of strict rules, the advocate par excellence. And he likes to get a little pathetic in the process.
He was unable to give the go-ahead, the Bavarian prime minister said at the weekend at his CSU’s online party conference. “Corona has returned in full force, with all forces in Europe.” According to Söder, the pandemic is “the test of our time and our generation.”
At least when it comes to the Corona force, Söder is probably right. The number of new patients has increased again for weeks, internationally but also in this country. On Saturday, the Robert Koch Institute reported 2,946 infections in one day, more than since April.
The Söder crown problem is particularly great. Bavaria has been hit hard by the crisis. Munich is now a Corona hotspot.
Are people getting more careless?
But there is also an atmosphere of alarm in other parts of the republic. And it could get worse. Experts are already warning about the coming months. That is, when it is colder outside and people prefer to be in closed rooms than outdoors. “Fall and winter can cause worry lines on the forehead,” virologist Martin Stürmer said recently.
On top of that, people seem to have gotten a bit sloppy over the summer. According to a survey by the Hamburg Center for Health Economics (HCHE), less and less attention is paid to distance and hygiene recommendations.
So is it time for a clear signal that something has to change again in the Corona fight?
Next Tuesday, the heads of government of the federal states will team up again with Chancellor Angela Merkel. There will probably be two main questions: Are appeals enough, or should citizens be encouraged to return to being cautious with higher standards? And do we need more standardized agreements for all of Germany again?
At the moment, the following mainly applies: Corona’s fight is taking place at the regional level, with appropriate measures where the virus is rampant. The strategy was also the result of the Prime Minister’s increasingly laborious rounds, in which it was often very difficult to achieve broad consensus on how to tackle the pandemic.
“Go our own way”
Attempts to agree on more common rules in the federal government recently failed. In the most recent round in late August, Chancellor Merkel actually wanted to limit gatherings in apartments and on private property to 25 people. Söder had also always spoken out in favor of crown standards at the national level. In the end, the group could only agree on a very slim formulation. “Depending on the regional infection rate,” was the decision, “restrictions will be imposed for private celebrations, for example, reducing the maximum number of participants.”
And, obviously, in some federal states they are determined not to allow any more to be prescribed in the future.
Two minister-presidents of the CDU already announced on Tuesday through “Bild am Sonntag”: Everything should remain the same. “In Saxony-Anhalt we go our own way,” said the head of government there, Reiner Haseloff. Infections can still be traced in your country. According to Haseloff, he sees no reason “to think again about tightening the measures.” He had already spoken almost word for word at SPIEGEL a few days before.
Michael Kretschmer from Saxony is also defending himself on a new course. “I have personal responsibility for the people who will and must behave in a more disciplined manner in the fall,” he said now.
Ask for a change of course
Calls get louder and louder after a course change. Especially private parties are considered dangerous. “At this time, people are mainly infected in their private sphere,” said Lothar Wieler, director of the Robert Koch Institute in the “Welt am Sonntag”, “at parties, wedding celebrations, funerals and also in religious services.”
Reinhard Sager, President of the District Assembly, therefore called for a general ceiling of less than 50 participants to be introduced for private celebrations. Otherwise, it would be “logistically extremely difficult to follow up the contacts,” said the CDU politician.
Recently, the Marburger Bund medical association also called for “uniform rules for private and public celebrations of all kinds.”
In addition, the Association of Cities and Municipalities is pushing for the requirement for masks to be expanded. Mouth and nose protection should be prescribed where distance cannot be maintained in public spaces, for example in crowded places, he said Sunday, or in areas where there are more than 50 new infections per week for every 100,000 residents. .
Skepticism not only in the East
However, it is not surprising that there is resistance to these specific national guidelines. In the east in particular, there are concerns that tough government measures may continue to play into the hands of the right. Above all, however, the perceived pressure to act is usually less. In many places, there have only been a few infections so far.
Rigid core requirements for private parties are also viewed critically in SPD-ruled Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for example. However, Haseloff, in particular, offered fierce resistance to a restrictive course in the last ministerial round in late August. At the time, the CDU man blocked himself against a fine for those who refused to wear masks and advertised himself to spectators in football stadiums.
So it remains extremely questionable whether prime ministers will focus on greater unity this time. Where there is more sympathy for national regulations, one really doesn’t want to believe in a change of course. “The seriousness of the situation has become even clearer in recent weeks,” it is said from the environment of a state government. “But the principle of regional action is unlikely to change.”
