Pandemic: SPD boss: Make the Union “not stubborn” when it comes to vaccination

Pandemic: SPD boss: Make the Union “not stubborn” when it comes to vaccination

With a compromise proposal, supporters of compulsory corona vaccination hope for a majority in the Bundestag. The Union responded with harsh rejection. The minister responsible is confident.

The advocates of compulsory corona vaccination are hitting hard with their compromise proposal in the Union. Leading politicians of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group strictly reject the proposal for compulsory vaccination from the age of 60.

Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) was nevertheless confident. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil called on the Union to give in. Since Tuesday, there has been a proposal for compulsory corona vaccination, initially from the age of 60.

Two groups, to which MPs from the SPD, Greens and FDP belong, had previously campaigned for compulsory vaccination from the age of 18 and 50 respectively. With the new proposal, the vaccination requirement should be met from October onwards – but it can be suspended by a Bundestag resolution in June if the vaccination rate has been increased sufficiently. In the fall, given the prevailing findings and potential virus variants, the Bundestag should also decide “whether the activation of the vaccination requirement for age groups from 18 years of age should also take effect”.

The CDU and CSU want the Vaccination Prevention Act

The health policy spokesman for the Union faction, Tino Sorge, strictly rejected the new initiative. “If the latest compromise between 18 and 50 is suddenly supposed to be 60, something can’t be right,” said Sorge on n-tv. The two groups would lose their credibility and supporters.

The parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, told the “Bild” newspaper: “Shortly before the gate closes, there are always new proposals from the ranks of the traffic lights. It’s not serious.” The union proposal is the real compromise. The CDU and CSU propose a preventive vaccination law. A vaccination register is to be set up and a “graded vaccination mechanism” introduced, which can be activated by the Bundestag and Bundesrat depending on the pandemic situation.

Health Minister Lauterbach is confident that the compromise proposal will find a majority in the Bundestag. “It is very likely that we will get through this,” said the SPD politician on the ZDF program “Markus Lanz”. 90 percent of corona deaths are in people over 60 years old. If there is no majority, it would be a “severe defeat”, but no reason for him to resign, said Lauterbach.

Only parts of the FDP are satisfied with the compromise

SPD leader Klingbeil also defended the new initiative. “This compulsory vaccination from 60 will help us to get through the fall in freedom,” said Klingbeil on “RTL Direkt”. He called on the Union: “And that’s why the appeal to reason and the responsibility of the Union again, not to be stubborn, but to say: We’re going along this path.”

The FDP health expert Andrew Ullmann, previously co-initiator of the application for compulsory vaccination from the age of 50, can “live very well” with the compromise. However, the result did not convince all supporters of his group, Ullmann told the “Handelsblatt”. He expressed the hope “that we achieved such a high vaccination rate in the summer that vaccination is no longer necessary and that it will be suspended again in the Bundestag, as the compromise allows.”

Source: Stern

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