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It is becoming increasingly unlikely that the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK) with the Chancellor on the Corona crisis will take place on Monday as planned.

As WELT learned from country circles, to date there has not even been an invitation to the planned meeting.

That would have to come from Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD), who is the chairman of the MPK.

Union-led countries complain that no preparations for the summit have taken place so far.

According to WELT information, the Bavarian State Chancellery therefore assumes that the meeting will be canceled.

A definitive decision should be made on Friday morning.

Müller: "At best a short consultation"

Berlin's governing mayor Michael Müller (SPD) had already said in the morning that there would be "at best a brief consultation" between the federal government and the prime minister.

As chairman of the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK), Müller is responsible for coordinating the SPD and Union countries together with CSU leader Markus Söder as his deputy.

Recently, doubts had grown as to whether the MPK would even take place.

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At their most recent video link on March 22, the Prime Ministers and Merkel decided that the Chancellor and the heads of government of the federal states would consult again on April 12 in the light of the infection development.

A postponement of the meeting planned for Monday is now becoming more and more likely.

According to information from the dpa from regional circles and other media, the planned deliberations may have been postponed to Wednesday.

The Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) also said on Thursday evening in the ZDF program "Maybritt Illner": "I assume it won't be on Monday."

Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Daniel Günther (CDU) also expressed skepticism about a renewed meeting next Monday.

“I'm not pushing for such a meeting,” said the CDU politician in the ARD “Tagesthemen”.

With the current Infection Protection Act and the previous resolutions, the entire framework is already in place to successfully combat the corona pandemic in the federal states.

"So I don't need any new meetings, we would implement exactly what we discussed with each other."

Country bosses open to postponement

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) is also ready to postpone the Prime Minister's Conference.

The round for Monday is still in his calendar, said Weil on Friday in the program "Frühstart" from RTL and n-tv.

"But if you should be of the opinion that we need a little more time to get better results, then that's fine with me."

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Everyone involved should know beforehand that a result would come out that they could live with.

“I think we are still a little way off that,” said Weil.

The meeting must be well prepared and there is still “enough to do”.

The SPD politician added: "It is really very important that such events end differently than last time."

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) also said on Wednesday that the date for an MPK on Monday might come too early.

It is crucial that clear majorities for the further procedure emerged beforehand.

In Union circles it was recently pointed out that the majority of the SPD countries had so far been against a hard lockdown.

On the other hand, CDU boss Armin Laschet proposed the imposition of a uniform "bridge lockdown" last Monday.

The heads of the government factions of the Union and SPD are also pressing for a broad debate in the Bundestag about the corona situation before the next federal-state round.

A government declaration could also be a suitable framework for discussing how to proceed in the fight against the pandemic, wrote the parliamentary group leaders Ralph Brinkhaus (CDU), Rolf Mützenich (SPD) and the CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt in a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel ( CDU) and the chairman of the Prime Minister's Conference (MPK), Berlin's Governing Mayor Michael Müller (SPD).

The letter is at the German Press Agency in Berlin.

"Would make our planning a lot easier"

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"It is important to the two government factions in the German Bundestag to discuss the status of the pandemic and possible conclusions from it in the Bundestag plenum before this conference," write the three heads of the government factions.

“A government statement or an agreed debate could be a suitable framework.” An agreed debate is a debate without a submission or a government statement as a subject for discussion.

Brinkhaus, Mützenich and Dobrindt write to Merkel and Müller: “We would be very grateful to you for short-term information on which day in the coming week you would ultimately like to place the federal-state conference.

This would make our planning a lot easier. "

The Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag made a push for more federal competencies on Thursday.

A good one and a half weeks ago, on March 28, Merkel accused the countries in a TV talk show of experimenting with easing despite the rampant third corona wave.

She was thinking about what to do now;

the federal government could take action if the states should not take the necessary measures.

An amendment to the Infection Protection Act has been under discussion since then, for example with the aim of making the emergency brake mandatory in areas with many infections.

Critics like the SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach complain that this costs too much time in view of the daily increase in the number of infections.

And Merkel would also need the approval of the countries, as she also made clear before Easter.

Support for such a project comes from North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU), who advocates more federal powers.

"Unfortunately, the past few days and weeks have shown that there is no consensus among the countries on essential issues," said the CDU federal chairman of the German press agency.

But action must be taken.

However, the individual countries would still have to take responsibility for measures to combat pandemics that would not have any transnational effects.

The pandemic situation on site is decisive.

The MPK is also “not a place for micromanagement”.