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Tuesday 20 October 2020
In the Bundestag, there is growing criticism of the creative power of the federal and state governments to combat the crown pandemic. The stumbling block: Federal Health Minister Spahn wants to broaden and widen his powers. He clings to it.
In the debate on continuous and comprehensive special powers for Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn in the crown pandemic, the CDU politician has rejected criticism of his plans. The existence of the corresponding regulation “is not arbitrary or accidental,” “Morgenmagazin” said in the ZDF. Rather, the special powers of the Federal Minister of Health in the fight against pandemics have “legal bases” and are regularly discussed by the Bundestag. That will continue to be the case, Spahn added.
The Federal Ministry of Health is targeting a new version of the Infection Protection Law as an emergency procedure, whereby the special powers of the Federal Ministry of Health for disease control will be extended beyond March 31, 2021. Until now, the special rights to issue ordinances have been limited in time and must be periodically extended by Parliament. The bill establishes that the previous regulations should be “consolidated” “whenever necessary to protect the population from the risk of serious communicable diseases.”
Spahn said plans to reorganize the law were also aimed at clarifying responsibilities around entry from abroad and entry restrictions. There must be “better legal bases” at this point. The federal government must decide centrally for the whole of Germany. This applies not only to Corona, but also to other diseases like Ebola.
Spahn advocates debates
Spahn’s plans to expand special powers had drawn much criticism, even from the ranks of the SPD, a coalition partner. In the “Morgenmagazin” the minister emphasized that his objective was not to impede parliamentary debates. These are important because the measures to contain the current pandemic of the crown refer to the “greatest restrictions on freedom” in the history of the Federal Republic, as well as important “unreasonable demands on the individual.”
In his opinion, the Bundestag could discuss the fight against the virus “more often”, added Spahn. The “federal cooperation” between the federal government and the states has so far been tested in the crisis and is even a “force of Germany”. A look at neighboring France shows that a core state “is no more successful per se at the moment” in fighting pandemics.
Roth: “That takes revenge”
Among others, the vice-president of the Bundestag, Claudia Roth, is one of the supporters of a greater participation of the Bundestag. At a time when the protection of health and the protection of freedom and civil rights must be weighed, there must be a struggle for solutions, demanded the green politician on Deutschlandfunk. “That is Parliament’s job, we can do that, we should get it back.”
Roth sees the principle of separation of powers, that is, the division of state power into legislative (legislative), executive (executive), and judicial (judicial) in an unequal position. “This is a really dangerously wrong fact that is drifting away from the legislature into clandestine executive events, and then also with campaigning prime ministers and insatiable ministers,” Roth said. “The coalition factions have been delegating to prime ministers for too long, so to speak, and that is paying off.”
