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The initiative to amend the Infection Protection Act, which is intended to give the federal government more influence in pandemic crisis management and was initiated by a group led by CDU politician Norbert Röttgen, is supported by 52 members of the Union.
As Röttgen WELT said, a letter with the 52 signatures was sent to parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU) and regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt (CSU).
Overall, the group around Röttgen had approached around 100 members of the parliament, the entire parliamentary group was not written to.
48 MPs have therefore not reported back.
A specific rejection of the proposal came from a parliamentarian, another was “rather negative”.
The legal policy spokesman for the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Jan-Marco Luczak (CDU), had previously spoken out in favor of changing the law.
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"The Bundestag recently changed the Infection Protection Act several times in order to enable the federal states to combat Corona effectively and precisely," said Luczak WELT.
"However, the last few weeks in particular have shown that some countries were either unwilling or did not have the political strength to actually use their broad scope of action for the measures necessary to contain the virus."
The Prime Minister's Conferences were "increasingly unable to take on a coordinating function and to adopt nationwide coordinated and coherent measures," said Luczak.
"That has cost trust and credibility and weakens the acceptance of the measures." This jeopardizes the containment of the virus.
Luczak pleaded for the Infection Protection Act to be adapted and made possible "that the federal government is also authorized to issue corona ordinances".
A “nationwide, targeted reaction to the infection process” makes the measures more comprehensible and increases their acceptance.
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Contradiction from Thuringia and from the municipalities
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Thuringia's head of state Bodo Ramelow (left) spoke out against uniform nationwide regulations.
He told the RND media network: “You can build a step-by-step and framework plan on the current Infection Protection Act.
You don't even have to go the long way of changing the law and participating in the Federal Council. ”If you wanted to act, this would have been possible since February and overdue since March.
The Chancellery should present a template.
The German Association of Cities and Towns (DStGB) also considers it wrong to put the containment of the corona pandemic in the hands of the federal government through a new infection protection law.
A new law "does not solve the now acute problem that we have to break the third wave quickly," said DStGB chief executive Gerd Landsberg of the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
More federal powers for clear and uniform requirements are "desirable", but cannot be implemented quickly.
Merkel should aim to change the Infection Protection Act
On Wednesday it became known that Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) is aiming to change the Infection Protection Act to combat the corona pandemic.
The aim is to standardize the Corona measures nationwide, reported the "Bild" on Wednesday, citing government circles.
According to this, districts should be obliged to tighten their measures in the event of increased incidence and R values, as well as taking other factors into account.
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One of the initiators of the initiative, CDU presidium member Röttgen, said to “Bild”: “It's not about weakening the countries.
It's about the federal government being able to act. ”So far, around two dozen MPs have supported the initiative.
But not all Union MPs were written to.
In an e-mail that Röttgen sent to several members of the parliamentary group according to WELT information together with the Bundestag members Johann Wadephul (CDU) and Yvonne Magwas (CDU), it says: "The Bundestag and Bundesrat have stated several times that the worldwide Covid- 19 pandemic means an 'epidemic situation of national scope' for Germany. ”National laws have been adapted accordingly, especially the Infection Protection Act.
The decisions to make use of the instruments anchored there, however, lie with the federal states.
Finally, an agreement on joint action was no longer possible.
"This made the weakness of the Infection Protection Act visible, which consists in the fact that this law only empowers the state governments to issue statutory ordinances with which the objectives of the law are to be fulfilled, but not the federal government," the mail said.
"The Bundestag must quickly close this gap in the Infection Protection Act." It is "a question of our responsibility as federal legislators to (additionally) give the federal government the same options for action as the states, namely to ensure the implementation of the national goals of the Infection Protection Act by means of statutory instruments".
According to WELT information, the members of the parliament were asked to join the initiative by Thursday noon.
One wants to call on the coalition factions to introduce a corresponding bill into the Bundestag as soon as possible.
Merkel initiated the discussion with Anne Will
The discussion about whether more decision-making powers in corona policy should be shifted to the federal level has been smoldering since the end of March.
Merkel had said on the ARD program "Anne Will" that the countries had to "step up" in fighting pandemic.
She criticized easing steps and at the same time stated that the federal government could itself take the initiative to change the Infection Protection Act.
A government spokesman said at the weekend that consideration was being given to “whether and how the federal government should make uniform guidelines if the federal states' approach is not sufficient”.