The fact that a corona vaccination will never come was more than just a promise.

It was the central promise of many parties in the corona pandemic - at least until now.

As is well known, things are currently changing and some who have been vehemently opposed to such an obligation for a long time are now burning for the idea.

Kim Bjorn Becker

Editor in politics.

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One of them is Markus Söder.

In his government statement in Munich on Tuesday, he said: "Let's finally introduce mandatory vaccination in Germany - we have to make a decision for the future of our country." demand.

But that's not true.

Bavaria's Prime Minister of the CSU has spoken very differently on this matter.

“From my point of view, there will be no compulsory vaccination,” said Söder in spring 2020 when the pandemic was still in its infancy.

But even a year later, he underscored his promise.

"Nobody needs to be vaccinated," said Söder in May of this year after consultations with the federal and state governments.

"We want to make vaccination offers, but there is no compulsory vaccination."

"Nobody who bears responsibility wants that"

In the Union, people have been skeptical about the compulsory vaccination, so the refusal to even think about this step was clear. Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble clearly ruled out compulsory vaccination a year ago. "We need people's willingness to be vaccinated," said the CDU politician. “But there will be no compulsory vaccination. Nobody who bears responsibility wants that. ”In February, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) told the FAZ that she advised against thinking about the obligation at all:“ We have promised that there will be no compulsory vaccination. ”And so did Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) decided: "I gave my word in the Bundestag: In this pandemic there will be no compulsory vaccination," he emphasized in February. In the meantime his ministry has the hintthat no such obligation comes, deleted from the website.

In the SPD, the compulsory vaccination was also not well suffered. Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil strictly rejected such a regulation for nursing staff. “It is forbidden to speculate about compulsory vaccination at the moment,” Heil said in January. When the surprisingly low willingness to vaccinate many carers was discussed at the beginning of the vaccination campaign, the SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach spoke out against forcing the professional group to vaccinate. A vaccination against Covid-19 must be the voluntary decision of every individual, he said. Meanwhile, the doctor sees it differently and can even imagine a general duty. "I would definitely not rule that out any more and tend to say: This does not help us acutely, but we have to get closer to mandatory vaccination," Lauterbach told the television broadcaster Bild.The reason is that the vaccination quota required to cope with the crisis has not yet been achieved. In Lauterbach's party, the Saarland state chairman, Anke Rehlinger, publicly advocated compulsory vaccination on Tuesday.

The Green Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, hardly committed himself to public statements on the sensitive topic - the mobility now helps him not to have to explain his demand for mandatory vaccination as a change of course.

"We are not planning any compulsory vaccination," said Kretschmann in the summer.

“I cannot rule out compulsory vaccination for all time.

It is possible that there will be variants that make this necessary. "