In the debate about the future legal basis for corona measures such as mask and contact rules until winter, the SPD, Greens and FDP want to submit joint proposals on Wednesday.
They are supposed to aim at an “orderly end” of the “epidemic situation of national importance”, which the Bundestag has for the time being determined by the end of November.
The Green Party leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt, SPD parliamentary group vice Dirk Wiese and FDP parliamentary group manager Marco Buschmann want to comment on this in Berlin in the morning.
SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich had announced that the possible future partners of a traffic light coalition were under discussion about new regulations in the Infection Protection Act. These should enable the countries to continue to react to corona challenges. A further extension of the epidemic situation of national scope by three months is not targeted. According to information from the editorial network in Germany, the key points provide for a transitional arrangement that will run until the end of March 2022. As "Business Insider" reported, citing circles of the traffic light coalition, this would be in force until March 20. This was also reported by "Bild", citing a draft paper.
“The state of emergency must not become a permanent state. We have to come to a new normal, and that as quickly as possible, ”said FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing to the newspapers of the Funke media group. "The German Bundestag has to decide things again - and not the federal government with extensive authorization."
The “epidemic situation” was first established by the Bundestag in March 2020 and has been extended repeatedly by parliament since then. The determination of the emergency enables the federal government and the state governments to order central corona measures in a simplified way without the consent of parliaments. If it is not extended, according to the Infection Protection Act, the federal states still have the option of determining the need for further corona measures via their state parliaments, so that an expiry would not automatically mean the end of measures. In the countries, however, warnings are given against a “patchwork quilt” and the associated lack of acceptance. The corona numbers in Germany have recently continued to rise.
After a proposal by the executive Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn for the "epidemic situation" to expire, it was discussed controversially for days - especially because of the increasing number of infections.
The CDU politician advocates an end to the “epidemic situation”, but insists on the necessary protective rules.