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Mutual accusations and omissions, peppered with nicknames: Hamburg's politicians are currently behaving little differently than those in the federal government.
With the Bundestag election campaign in mind, the members of the parliament also used the current meeting on Thursday to hold the respective political opponent responsible for the grievances in connection with the corona pandemic.
While the government factions of the SPD and the Greens were targeting the Union's search for chancellor candidates, the CDU attacked the former mayor of Hamburg and today's SPD candidate for chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The reason for the exchange of blows was the now 38th Corona Containment Ordinance of the Senate of Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD).
It came into force on Good Friday and provides for, among other things, a nightly exit restriction between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. in the Hanseatic city - a controversial instrument in the opposition.
"Tobias Hans opens the Saarland despite the increasing number of infections, Markus Söder orders vaccine that is reserved exclusively for Bavaria, Armin Laschet ponders a 'bridge lockdown'", said SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Kienscherf, starting his criticism of the Prime Minister of the Union.
At the same time, Hamburg is lagging behind in the federal vaccine distribution, in order to allow more vaccine to be used in border states such as Bavaria and Saarland and to slow down the introduction of the virus.
"Pandemic turns into unworthy profiling behavior"
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Kienscherf: "The fight against the pandemic is being misused as a stage for the Union's candidacy for chancellor, the pandemic is turning into an unworthy profile behavior."
The Prime Minister's Conference unanimously agreed on a joint approach for the coming weeks - Hamburg was following these decisions because it was necessary, said Kienscherf.
With the Hamburg test strategy in the private sector, in daycare centers and schools as well as in companies, the city-state on the Elbe wants, according to the SPD, to "ensure more security, localize infections early and thus limit them".
In addition, vaccination capacities are to be expanded through specialized practices and general practitioners.
Furthermore, prevention and education to cope with the pandemic are to be intensified in parts of the city with noticeably high incidence values.
The basis for targeted interventions should be a database that is updated every four weeks.
With this, Rot-Grün wants to expand health advice in the city districts and strengthen it through intercultural mediators on site.
"Stage for a cheap election campaign and a struggle for the candidacy for chancellor"
However, what the country leaders are currently doing in front of everyone is making the Green parliamentary group leader Dominik Lorenzen “stunned”.
The corona situation is far too serious "to be abused as a stage for cheap election campaigns and a struggle for the candidacy for chancellor in the Union".
That is pathetic.
Lorenzen: "Laschet or Söder, I and most people in this country don't care." Instead, from the perspective of the Green politician, it is about "making quick, reliable, functioning political decisions".
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The corona crisis should also not turn into a federalism crisis.
Lorenzen: "If the country leaders fail to agree on effective corona measures, the federal government must act now." Additional infection protection across Germany is urgently needed to break the third wave.
"Take action, Ms. Merkel"
That is why the leader of the Green parliamentary group appealed to Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU): “Take action and create the basis for it.
I am a big advocate of federalism, but in this situation it slows us down in the face of the cacophony of the countries and in the face of the campaign noise.
The CDU parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering, in turn, identified Vice Chancellor Scholz as a current problem.
The federal election campaign was casting its shadow, said Thering, adding: "The SPD in particular has long since started to play dirty against its own coalition partner." That does not help to get Corona under control.
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"Take care of what people expect of you, the fight against the virus, that is far too little of what Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz is doing," the opposition leader called out to the Federal Minister of Finance.
The pandemic is not suitable for entering the federal election campaign prematurely.
Thering called on the Hamburg Senate to prepare the structures for the soon-to-be-hoped greater availability of the vaccine.
"At the moment we are not yet."
Drastically reduce commuting
Left, AfD and FDP, meanwhile, reject the strict restrictions of the red-green Senate.
Left faction leader Sabine Boeddingshaus criticized the fact that the latest containment ordinance still lacks a clear strategy.
She demanded "to drastically reduce commuting and finally to take responsibility for the economy." The exit restriction represents a disproportionate interference, "which we strictly reject".
With the new regulation “we are experiencing the most brutal encroachment on fundamental rights in Hamburg that has ever existed in this city,” said AfD parliamentary group leader Dirk Nockemann.
Instead of orienting itself towards “the incidence madwoman” and “locking up” the people, the Senate should rely on the voluntary nature of the population.
From the point of view of the FDP MP Anna von Treuenfels-Frowein, citizens should not be allowed to suffer because of a “government failure”.
In view of the exit restriction, it is clear to the people that “the state cannot think of anything better to protect them”.
It is good “that the people of Hamburg adhere to the restrictions.
But don't think they'll agree with you, ”said the Liberal.
Because "the curfew is a document of helplessness".
And "that the self-proclaimed civil rights party of the Greens is participating in the curfew is revealing."