D.he Karlsruhe judges did not relieve politicians of which arsenal the federal and state governments can use in the future to fight the pandemic. Constitutional complaints against the so-called federal emergency brake, which expired in the summer, were finally rejected on Tuesday. This means that the ball rests again with the outgoing and the future federal government that is being formed, as well as with the sixteen federal states.
Their heads of government are again holding a conference this Tuesday with the Executive Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and her presumed successor, Olaf Scholz (SPD). Up until then, it was mainly the Union-led federal states, but also Baden-Württemberg, which was ruled by a Green Prime Minister, that the parties in Scholz’s Ampel-Coalition had reduced the size of the pandemic control toolbox by amending the Infection Protection Act at the end of November. Representatives of the SPD, the Greens and, above all, the FDP often objected to this, the states often failing to exhaust the new legal framework with their measures and therefore have no reason to complain.
So what is the situation in the 16 countries? What have the state governments done since the previous Prime Minister’s Conference on November 18?
In some places the old law still applies
Quite a few have adjusted their Corona regulations on November 24th. Because one day later, on November 25th, the “epidemic situation of national importance”, which the Bundestag did not want to extend, ended. State law, which came into force by the deadline, is still valid until December 15th.
Since November 25, the states have been able to adopt stricter rules to combat pandemics independently of the federal government. Comprehensive curfews, precautionary, comprehensive school closings or even the general closure of restaurants or retailers are no longer possible. It is controversial whether this needs to be changed. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) sees his position as confirmed by the decision in Karlsruhe that the exclusion of far-reaching measures is wrong. All Bavarian regulations were in line with basic rights, he wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “That disproves everyone who tried to draw a different picture,” he said.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer also urged the federal government to act before the switching conference: “The federal government must change the Infection Protection Act quickly and enable all the instruments to combat crises for the federal states,” said the CDU politician. He expected that “the current federal-state switch will send out a clear warning to the population”.
The incidence of hospitalization is insufficient in many countries
On November 18, the federal and state governments had already agreed on threshold values. It’s about the hospitalization incidence: It shows how many Covid patients per 100,000 people had to be treated in the hospital in the past seven days. If it exceeds the value 3, the federal states should introduce a comprehensive 2-G regulation for leisure events, body-friendly services and gastronomy. A visit to the restaurant, for example, is then only possible for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered.
If threshold 6 is reached, 2-G-plus should apply in discos, clubs and bars. Before a night of dancing, vaccinated and convalescent people would also have to present a negative test result. From the threshold value 9, the federal states should “make consistent use of the further possibilities of the Infection Protection Act”, according to the decision of the last switch.
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