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On her last few meters as Chancellor Angela Merkel comes into perhaps the worst turbulence of her term in office.

The corona crisis management, the Prime Minister's Conferences she leads, could be history since Merkel's interview with Anne Will on Sunday evening.

The fact that she publicly calls prime ministers from within her own ranks - including her party leader Armin Laschet - is a novelty of her chancellorship.

One day after Merkel's remarkable appearance at Will, her colleague Frank Plasberg is responsible for the gleanings in his panel discussion.

Norbert Röttgen (CDU), the journalist Marina Weisband, the journalist Melanie Amann, the political scientist Herfried Münkler and the journalist Matthew Karnitschnig assess the current situation under the heading “Excuse me, we have a question: Is Germany failing in the crisis?”

SPD veteran Klaus von Dohnanyi is announced in the opening credits, but has to fit at short notice due to technical problems.

The Chancellor's interview

“That was definitely a broadside,” said Melanie Amann after Merkel's statements about Laschet were played to her again.

The Chancellor accused the NRW boss of a violation of jointly made decisions.

"Perhaps there is also something good that this played harmony, which has always been celebrated in the Prime Minister's Conferences, has now been broken up," continued Amann.

Up until now, they have usually only agreed on the laziest compromise ever.

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Röttgen, who only a few weeks ago was defeated by Armin Laschet in the race for party chairmanship, was initially emphatically diplomatic and tried to downplay internal party conflicts.

Ultimately, however, he jumped in on the content of the Chancellor.

The Prime Minister's Conferences, which he described as a “special government format”, had turned out to be “dysfunctional” and recently “had a harmful effect”.

No time for discussion

"If that cannot be repaired, the Bundestag must make use of its legislative powers in order to come to the necessary decisions," said Röttgens quite clearly back to parliamentary decisions and possible readjustments of the Infection Protection Act.

And above all, the decisions have to come quickly, you don't have time to discuss.

"We are at the beginning of the most serious and dangerous phase of this pandemic," he warned urgently in the best Karl Lauterbach manner.

Marina Weisband criticized Merkel's appearance for addressing the 16 prime ministers instead of the citizens.

That was a missed opportunity to restore lost trust in state institutions.

"This is a difficult signal for the families who have been sitting at home for a year and the people who are losing income because it emphasizes the importance of political processes and the question of guilt."

The problem with the lockdown

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But the publicist and Green politician, who considered a short-term lockdown to be inevitable, also took the minister-presidents seriously: “There are ways of communicating and implementing this lockdown in such a way that it is accepted.

For this, targeted action must be taken.

We cannot count on fighting the lockdown instead of the pandemic, as some prime ministers are doing now. "

In the second half of the program, the group discussed the subject of vaccination.

Why is Germany giving such a disastrous picture when it comes to vaccination and how could it have been done better?

"German politics did not understand what a challenge the pandemic is," said Herfried Münkler.

The unsuccessful vaccination strategy

The organization has been delegated to the EU for procurement, which has no experience with it, and responsibility for vaccination has been transferred to the federal states.

He criticized the German regularity to want to please everyone.

The vaccination sequence adopted by the Ethics Council placed supposed justice over efficiency, which now had a negative effect.

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The American Matthew Karnitschnig agreed and was stunned by the German crisis policy.

“It cannot be that the Chancellor becomes a petitioner to the Prime Minister and they do what they want.

That's ridiculous. ”In the USA, Covid is no longer an issue, here politics have failed to procure the vaccine.

"The only Germans I know who are vaccinated are in New York City," he joked.

"Vaccine Nationalism"

“We have exaggerated the moral imperative of 'no vaccine nationalism'.

It is legitimate for a state to take care of its citizens and not nationalism, ”Röttgen admitted, calling the discussion about it“ pseudo-moral ”.

In the end, both Röttgen and Wiesband also advocated digital reforms.

“We have to learn to become more crisis-proof,” demanded Weisband.

“While we do everything with pencil and paper, Israel got through the crisis well because they are digitally networked.” Röttgen was in favor of rediscovering old virtues: “We have to become German again here.

The pandemic is focusing on our weaknesses.

We are no longer as good at management as our reputation suggests.

Those who are not digital today cannot manage. "