Lockdown before Christmas: Merkel wants "slight additions" to Corona paper

display

Markus Söder (CSU) calls for the federal and state governments to tighten the previous state proposals before the corona consultations.

The Bavarian Prime Minister said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a state parliament meeting in Munich that some areas still need to be sharpened 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 the paper from the federal states was good, the considerations would largely be supported by the federal government.

However, the federal government will make further proposals to reduce contact.

According to information from the Reuters news agency, Merkel wants slight "additions" to the country paper.

The Chancellor described the submission of the 16 prime ministers in the CDU / CSU parliamentary group as "good" according to information from participants.

Merkel also referred to the strong regional differences in the number of infections, including between the city-states.

There are very high numbers of new infections in Berlin, but not in Bremen and Hamburg.

display

The Chancellor announced that she would connect again with the Prime Minister on December 14 or 15 to assess where the infection situation would be.

Brinkhaus against easing on New Year's Eve

Previously, Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus pleaded against the easing of the contact restrictions between Christmas and New Year proposed by the Prime Minister for stricter corona 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" said the CDU politician to "Spiegel".

“But on New Year's Eve we really don't have to open everything again.” Brinkhaus warned: “Christmas and New Year's Eve together would probably set us back a lot.” When asked about a possible firecracker ban on New Year's Eve, he said: “Basically, everything that does not take place on New Year's Eve , is good in terms of infection. "

display

Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller, on the other hand, considers the relaxation planned by the federal states for private contacts over Christmas and New Year's Eve to be “appropriate”.

"So many people have gone through so much in the last few months," said the SPD politician.

You have to say: "In a special time of the year, when the encounter is just very, very important to many, we allow that too," said Müller.

Holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria start two days earlier

Before the new federal-state consultations on the further course in dealing with the corona virus, the Union-governed states had spoken out in favor of an extension of the holidays - at least that was the case in a joint paper.

The current agreement between the federal states states that self-isolation lasting several days before Christmas can be supported by early Christmas holidays from December 19.

North Rhine-Westphalia had initially submitted and announced an earlier start to the holidays.

There will be emergency care for students from the 1st to the 6th grade on December 21st and 22nd.

The Ministry of Education announced this to all schools in an email on Monday.

According to the mail, teachers are on normal duty on both days.

There were protests from the teachers' union GEW and the Association of Single Mothers and Fathers in North Rhine-Westphalia, among others.

display

In Bavaria, too, the holidays are being extended by two days due to the corona.

This means that the students do not have to wait until December 23rd, but their last day of school will be December 18th (Friday) this year.

"The risk of infection is significantly reduced by the almost one-week waiting period between school lessons and Christmas, so that families can celebrate in a healthy and carefree way," tweeted Markus Söder on Tuesday.

The Bavarian Radio had previously reported on it.

Here you will find content from Twitter

In order to interact with or display content from Twitter and other social networks, we need your consent.

Activate social networks

I consent to content from social networks being displayed to me.

This allows personal data to be transmitted to third party providers.

This may require the storage of cookies on your device.

More information can be found here.

Criticism comes from the German Association of Philologists, among others.

But also many parents who had to sacrifice one or the other vacation day to childcare during the Corona crisis should not like the short-term vacation extension.

The association spoke of a "planning chaos".

Teachers wanted to plan their lessons sensibly, said the chairwoman of the association, Susanne Lin-Klitzing, the editorial network Germany.

"In case of doubt, those who are about to graduate from high school or who are pending other exams would suffer from short-term vacation extensions." Instead of hectic doctoring around during the vacation periods, series tests are needed at the start of school in the new year - that is, voluntary corona tests for all students and Teacher.

In most federal states, December 18 is the last day of school before Christmas anyway.