Partial lockdown before Christmas: Söder wants to toughen crown rules

Stand: 3:57 pm | 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 Tuesday on the sidelines of a meeting of the state parliament in Munich that some points still need to be refined and supplemented.

In addition, Chancellor Angela Merkel promised her own proposals for the federal-state talks on Wednesday. According to information from the German Press Agency, Merkel said on Tuesday that participants in the virtual meeting of the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag said that the federal states document was good and that the deliberations would be largely supported by the federal government. However, the federal government will make more proposals to reduce the contacts.

After this information, the Chancellor announced that she would connect again with the Prime Minister on December 14 or 15 to assess where the contagion 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 Year proposed by the prime minister for stricter crown rules at least at the turn of the year: “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 been 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 for 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. The current agreement between the federal states states that self-isolation that lasts several days before Christmas can be supported by an anticipated Christmas break from December 19.

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 almost 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, said the association’s president, Susanne Lin-Klitzing, of the Germany 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 being agitated during the holiday periods, serial tests are 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.