Chancellor Olaf Scholz firmly defended on Friday his plan to introduce compulsory vaccination against COVID-19 in Germany even if the adoption of the measure was delayed in a climate already overheated by existing restrictions.
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Initially scheduled for next week, the first debate in the Bundestag on this delicate subject will finally only take place at the end of January, with the parliamentary bill still pending.
Worse: the largest parliamentary group of Social Democrats (SPD) does not expect the legislative process to be completed before the end of March.
This is a first setback for the new SPD chancellor Olaf Scholz who, even before his enthronement in November, had assured that the process would “start again this year”, that is to say in 2021.
At the end of a summit meeting Friday between government and regions to better fight the coronavirus and in particular the variant Omicron, Mr. Scholz however assured that all the German Länder had spoken in favor of the measure.
“The 16 heads of government declared that they were in favor of a general compulsory vaccination”, he declared, saying that he was “supported to the maximum”.
He sent that decision back to MPs who he said will make “smart” and “correct” decisions.
In addition to its compulsory nature, it is also the establishment of a vaccination register, centralized by the administration, which poses a problem in a country still traumatized by mass surveillance under Nazism and then in East Germany.
Government under strain
The subject also divides the new coalition formed between SPD, environmentalists and liberals of the FDP because the latter are reserved in the face of compulsory vaccination. They want to be the guarantors of “individual freedom of conscience”.
“The protection of health is a precious good, but the most precious good of our Constitution, it is and remains freedom”, affirmed Thursday Christian Lindner, their leader and current Minister of Finance.
According to him, the evolution of the pandemic in recent weeks, generally under control in Germany where daily contaminations are around 55,000 cases, shows that we must “act in moderation”.
The FDP prefers to wait and see how the epidemic and the Omicron variant, less dangerous than its Delta counterpart but more contagious, will evolve, according to a study by the British health agency. This variant should soon become the majority in Germany.
“If in February / March, there are solid indications showing that compulsory vaccination leads to a marked increase in freedom of movement for all of us, then everything is in favor of this solution,” said Liberal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann in die Zeit.
“If, on the other hand, the vaccination should help only for two or three months in a predictable way, but that for the rest, everything remains basically as before, then that pleads rather against a compulsory vaccination”, he added.
Liberal parliamentarians have also announced that they are preparing a counter-proposal that would rule out the vaccination requirement. However, the latter will be made compulsory in March for medical staff.
Violent protests
The demonstrations, sometimes with outbursts, bringing together several hundred opponents to it but also to the restrictions already in place, are increasingly numerous in Germany, where only 71.6% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Weapons had even been seized at the end of December during a police raid in Saxony after death threats made by the anti-vaccine movement against a national leader.
Other European countries have introduced, or intend to introduce compulsory vaccination, in a more peaceful context.
Austria is to be the first EU country to do so by early February, as originally planned, Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s government said on Thursday.
In remarks on the text of the law sent on Friday, ELGA GmbH, the Austrian body responsible for electronic medical records, writes, however, that “the technical implementation of compulsory vaccination” will only be possible “from April 2022. as soon as possible “.
For its part, Italy has decided to introduce compulsory vaccination for all people over the age of 50 from February 15. Greece made it compulsory at the start of the year for all people over 60.