In a roll-call vote, out of 688 votes cast on Thursday, 398 members voted in favor, 254 against and 36 abstained, as Bundestag Vice President Aydan Özoguz (SPD) announced. The “traffic light parties” have 416 seats. The federal state chamber has yet to give its approval, but the Union threatens to reject it.
The federal and state governments wanted to meet on Thursday after the Bundestag resolution for deliberations as part of a Prime Minister’s Conference.
In addition to the expansion of measures at the workplace, in means of transport or nursing homes, the new regulations also provide that particularly strict measures, such as schools or business closings, should no longer be possible.
In the debate in the Bundestag, the parties of the likely coming traffic light coalition and the Union that is still in power at the time fought a hard exchange of blows. “We are reacting to the very difficult corona situation with necessary and legally certain measures,” said SPD health expert Sabine Dittmar, defending the planned new regulations. This would give the federal states more opportunities to act than with the legal situation that is still in force.
Union faction vice Thorsten Frei accused the traffic light parties of going in the wrong direction when fighting the pandemic. “Please turn around,” said the CDU politician. The traffic light’s plans not to prolong the epidemic situation previously determined by the Bundestag are irresponsible. This would knock instruments out of the hands of the countries. Union parliamentary group Vice Stephan Stracke (CSU) said the traffic light plans would not do justice to the drama of the situation.
The FDP politician Marco Buschmann sharply rejected the criticism. “The claim that the new package of measures leaves the countries defenseless is objectively wrong,” said the First Parliamentary Managing Director of the FDP parliamentary group. “It was right from the start because we put very robust measures on a legally secure footing right from the start.” The criticism is partly untruthful.
Green parliamentary group leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt said with a view to criticism of the Union. “The legal situation that you are suing here exists.” However, tougher measures to combat pandemics have not been implemented by many federal states. The measures now planned went much further than the previous ones.
The plans of the SPD, Greens and FDP are intended to create a different legal basis for corona requirements if the epidemic situation previously determined by the Bundestag expires on November 25th. The traffic light parties have decided against extending it again in the Bundestag. This state of emergency has so far given the governments of the federal states the opportunity to take far-reaching corona measures by simple ordinance, from exit restrictions and event bans to restaurant, business or school closings.
The traffic light no longer wants to make such measures possible, with a few exceptions, such as bans or restrictions in the leisure, cultural or sports sector – but only if the state parliaments so decide. The Union-led federal states threaten to blockade in the Federal Council if they are no longer given the opportunity to restrict and close. On the other hand, the traffic light catalog of measures also creates new opportunities: There should be measures such as 3G in the workplace and even in means of transport, as well as mandatory testing in nursing homes.
Source From: Nachrichten
