On Friday, the Federal Council will discuss the next step to open the crown regime, and it doesn’t look too bad. Last week, Health Minister Alain Berset (48) said that further relaxation would be realistic, because the vaccination campaign is moving forward and the testing strategy is being expanded with free tests for all.

However, further relaxation is not certain, and no one knows how far the state government is willing to open up. Can restaurants now open their terraces?

Monster debate at night

Therefore, there are efforts in parliament to take power away from the Federal Council and force it to open up. The Economic Commission of the National Council asks for the full opening on March 22 and wants to stipulate it in the Covid-19 law.

Today, Monday, it will be decided if there are possibilities. Because starting at 2.30 pm the National Council will lean into a monstrous debate on the law. Politicians will argue late into the night – the promotion debate should only last two hours!

These are the hot irons

And therefore some are likely to use this for a public bill with the Federal Council’s crown policy.

In particular, the following points should be discussed:

Beizenöffnungen: The Economic Commission wants restaurants and bars to be able to reopen completely as of March 22, subject to compliance with the protective concepts. The SVP isn’t doing this fast enough – it’s asking for pickling to be retroactively opened from March 1. Which is special, because the changes to the Covid law will not be definitively approved by parliament until March 19, three weeks later. Therefore, it is impossible for the SVP request to pass.
Power question: The SVP wants the Federal Council to have to obtain the approval of the responsible parliamentary commission before taking far-reaching decisions.
Operative group muzzle: According to the will of the Economic Commission, the members of the working group should no longer be able to express themselves freely. Only President Martin Ackermann is allowed to speak in public, and only after consultation with the Federal Office of Public Health. If a member continues to say something, for example because the media requests it, he must expressly state that he does not do so as a member but, for example, as a university professor. The task force should also be able to make recommendations to the Federal Council only after the state government has made a decision.
Vaccinate: The economic commission asks for vaccination coverage by the end of May, but does not say where the vaccine should come from. In addition, a minority behind the leader of the SVP parliamentary group Thomas Aeschi (42) demands that the National Council follow the Council of States and exclude vaccinated people from quarantine. But Aeschi is also heading in the opposite direction. It demands that people who do not get vaccinated are not discriminated against.
Criteria and traffic light system: The economic commission calls for a traffic light system for corona measures. With the positivity rate, R-value, number of new infections, and vaccination progress, a kind of automatic relaxation and hardening mechanism will be introduced. However, the question of which criteria should be used is highly controversial. A minority of SVPs do not want to know anything about the R-value or the number of new infections. It requires that hospital occupancy rates, excess long-term mortality and vaccination rates of risk groups are decisive.

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The great debate on the Covid law in the National Council

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