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Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) has doubts in view of the development of the corona pandemic as to whether the Christmas services this year can actually take place in the form planned so far.

In an interview with the “Tagesspiegel”, the Union politician said: “It's a completely different Christmas than we know it, but the figures of the past few days suggest that we have to be even more careful than we thought two weeks ago. »

He will therefore hold talks with the churches again in the next few days.

He actually planned to go to Christmas mass on Christmas Eve as always and even reserved two tickets as a precaution, said Laschet.

Then he added: “Whether the Christmas mass will actually take place at the end remains to be seen.

Should it not be so, it will not change the meaning of Christmas. "

The Protestant Church in Westphalia has already said that it will also cancel services, said Laschet.

The religious communities take the situation very seriously.

"They also know that this is the festival of life and charity, and that one has to weigh carefully."

Laschet made it clear that he relies on voluntary decisions by the religious communities.

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The Prime Minister was reluctant to ask about an end to the lockdown.

“As soon as the infection process makes it possible, we have to withdraw encroachments on fundamental rights.

But right now there's not even the slightest bit of a chance to talk about it, ”he said.

Only in January will it be known how the lockdown worked.

It is premature to speculate now about how things will go after January 10th.

"In the end, the decisive factor is certainly the number of patients in the intensive care units and the number of deaths."

The politician made it clear that it would definitely not be possible to get out of the hard lockdown immediately into a completely free life.

«The key question after the holidays will be: what will happen to schools and daycare centers?

It will be a long time before we celebrate parties again. "

Daily mirror report