Germany: Olaf Scholz defends plan to phase out Covid state of emergency

Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz has defended his plan to phase out a state of national emergency by the end of the month despite the country recording the highest coronavirus case numbers since the start of the pandemic.

“The virus is still here and threatening the health of our citizens,” Scholz said in a parliamentary debate on Thursday, as he pushed for MPs to support a catalogue of new measures to curb the spread of virus. “Therefore it is very, very important that we take all measures to ensure we can protect their health.”

The Social Democrat, whose SPD party is in the process of forging a governing coalition with the German Greens and the liberal Free Democratic Party, specifically mentioned bringing back free rapid-tests for the entire population, compulsory testing for care workers and more financial support for vaccination centres administering booster jabs, on top of keeping in place mandatory mask-wearing rules.

Scholz said he welcomed some German federal states following Austria’s lead by introducing so-called “2G” requirements, meaning that only those who have been vaccinated or recently recovered from Covid can visit bars, clubs or restaurants, but shied away from endorsing a nationwide application of such a rule.

Germany has reported record daily rates of new infections on a seven-day average since the start of the week, with the country’s disease control agency on Friday announcing 50,196 further cases.

In terms of deaths, the country’s fourth wave still remains below previous peaks in April 2020, January 2021 and April 2021: the Robert Koch Institute on Thursday reported 235 new deaths, up from 165 at the same point a week ago.

“Even though the situation is different because so many are vaccinated, it is not good,” Scholz said on Thursday. “In particular because not enough citizens have taken the vaccine so far.”

Germany has the third-lowest vaccination rate in western Europe, with 66% of the country’s population fully vaccinated, ahead of other German-speaking states Austria and Switzerland.

German states with the largest rates of unvaccinated people, in the east and south, are also reporting the highest rates of infections. Saxony, where only 57.2% of the population are fully vaccinated, is the country’s hotspot with 522 infections per 100,000 people over the last seven days.

The outgoing and incoming governments have nonetheless agreed that 25 November should mark the end of the so-called “epidemic situation of national relevance”, which created a legal framework for the government to agree on nationwide pandemic restrictions with the heads of Germany’s 16 federal states, effectively circumventing parliament.

In the future, pandemic restrictions should again be debated and decided in the Bundestag, the incoming government argues. “This blanket set of measures, with lockdowns for the entire republic and de-facto occupational bans … we no longer consider proportionate,” said Dirk Wiese, deputy of the SPD’s parliamentary group.

The end of epidemic emergency rules has been criticised by the conservative bloc of outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel, which is adjusting to its role on the opposition benches. Alexander Dobrindt of the Bavarian Christian Social Union said the likely new government’s first decision risked creating a “corona-chaos in Germany”. He said: “To put a political end to the epidemic situation without naming sufficient alternatives while hospital occupancy rates are rising is a sign of aimlessness.”

Only the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is calling for the complete scrapping of all pandemic restrictions, pointing to the UK’s “freedom day” as an example for Germany to follow.

The proposed law will be voted on on 18 December.