Whe saw Angela Merkel in the ARD interview this week, should not have believed his eyes and ears. On the whole, nothing went wrong, said the Chancellor. Although the formulation was primarily aimed at vaccine procurement, many people in Germany will not share the head of government’s viewpoint either there or in the rest of the corona policy.
People’s trust in the government is currently falling sharply, as Cornelia Betsch noted right at the beginning of Anne Will’s broadcast. While 60 percent of the population was in favor of the corona measures last March, if it is currently only 40 percent, the professor for health communication at the University of Erfurt gave a lecture on her research. Your diagnosis: Confidence is falling, while general corona fatigue and the psychological stress of the population increase. Two simple things would help people here: unity and simplicity of the rules. Regarding the federal government, Betsch said: Any other strategy would be better.
Wow. It is a prelude with flourish, the contrast to the Chancellor could hardly be greater.
Anne Will was also closer to Mrs Betsch than to the Chancellor that evening, at least with the title of the program: “Dwindling trust in Corona crisis management – what has to happen now?” Was the title of the talk show’s production team. In view of the upcoming federal-state summit next Wednesday, everyone is waiting for appropriate answers from those responsible. That evening, in addition to Cornela Betsch from Erfurt and the journalist Georg Mascolo, above all Manuela Schwesig (SPD Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Ralph Brinkhaus (Union parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag) and Sahra Wagenknecht from the Left. As a special highlight, Health Minister Jens Spahn was also involved – for an individual interview. But more on that later.
German complacency
Georg Mascolo initially fired the hot start of Betsch even further by making it clear how German politics, through its complacency in the first phase of the pandemic (“Pandemic World Champion”) and in the summer (“Nobody can do that better than us”) wasted important time in the fight against Corona. Now the pandemic is actually affecting us with full severity. “And now, if we’re honest, we can’t even say whether we have the worst behind us or whether we still have the worst ahead of us.” And so the question of the show comes to mind: What has to happen now?
Sahra Wagenknecht from the Left started and called for more targeted measures. For example, restaurants are not sources of infection and can therefore be reopened. The retail trade was also forcibly closed while the logistics centers of the pandemic winner Amazon turned out to be corona hotspots.
Of the participants in government responsibility, the Union parliamentary group leader Ralph Brinkhaus was the first to have the opportunity to provide clarity – and possibly to awaken some hope and confidence in the people. But that evening Brinkhaus had above all brought a huge bouquet of common places. You have to see things in context. Looking back, one or the other could certainly have been done differently. We have to look ahead. And: We have to work on it.
Short question at this point: Do you still know what this man is talking about? Is it about his performance in the last Bundesliga game, the amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act or is it about the federal government’s corona policy?
Lockdown is to be extended
Between all these smoke candles, Brinkhaus actually casually dropped important information in the subordinate clause, for example that the decision to continue the lockdown for a few more weeks will be sought for Wednesday (i.e. at the next federal-state summit on corona policy). At this point it was now clear: The man is talking about the corona pandemic. And his new ideas for the coming weeks is a crude “keep it up”. Anne Will didn’t cut the best figure either: she neither interrupted Brinkhaus’s empty phrases, nor did she follow up on the casual lockdown extension.
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